Home Nations 2025

Teams from all over made the trek to Loughborough to take part in the Home Nations Bowl and Open Tournaments, one of the UK’s top events.

Friday Arrival

On the Friday night, I travelled up with Jayward after work and arrived at our digs to discover that Orcster and Bertmac had arrived in the middle of the day—and had been drinking ever since! We joined them for a few, but it was already pretty late, so there was only time for a couple of drinks before last call at the bar.

The Welsh Open Team

The Welsh Open team for the Home Nations was:

• Rubick (c) – Humans
• Lord Bonan – Goblins
• Nickson104 (me) – Shambling Undead
• Jimmy Dreambeard – Elven Union

Unfortunately, Rubick fell ill over the weekend and was unable to play, meaning we needed a ringer. Thankfully, TO Jock was able to help us out by asking Sizzler to lend us his skills for the majority of the weekend.

JimmyDreambeard, Nickson104 & Lord_Bonan

The tournament with all the matches and standings for each round can be seen in Tourplay on this link https://tourplay.net/en/blood-bowl/the-home-nations-open-ii

Day 1

Round 1 vs No Eyed Deer – Tie 0-0

A bit of a derby match right out of the gate, considering Barnacles was a member of last year’s Welsh Europen team.

• Lord Bonan vs Farf Windrunner (Tomb Kings) – Tie 1-1
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs Ronaldbeanio (Elven Union) – Tie 1-1
• Nickson104 vs Col (Chaos Renegades) – Tie 1-1
• Sizzler vs Barnacles (Chaos Chosen) – Tie 1-1

Round 2 vs Arkadius Gaming – Loss 1-2

• Lord Bonan vs Big Tasty (Amazon) – Win 1-0
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs Marc Davies (Norse) – Tie 1-1
• Nickson104 vs Chuck Dredd (Necromantic Horror) – Loss 0-1
• Sizzler vs Stuart Freer (Human) – Loss 1-2

Round 3 vs Points4U – Win 3-0

• Lord Bonan vs jipgobsmak (Human) – Win 2-1
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs Peter Oxley (Dwarf) – Tie 1-1
• Nickson104 vs commissionerref (Slann) – Win 3-1
• Sizzler vs DavidtheGrey (Orc) – Win 2-0

Saturday Night

Once the dust had settled on Day One, a large contingent of players descended on one poor restaurant for a group curry organised by TO Jock. The food was excellent, and the staff handled the party of 80 players very well! Jock knocked it out of the park with this suggestion, hopefully this marks the start of a new annual tradition for the Home Nations.

Day 2

Round 4 vs Drunken Masters – Win 2-1

• Lord Bonan vs Doglobro (Skaven) – Loss 1-2
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs Ardbeg (Khorne) – Win 2-0
• Nickson104 vs Bob2Bass (Tomb Kings) – Tie 1-1
• Sizzler vs The Sender (Necromantic Horror) – Win 3-0

Round 5 vs Bang Average Blood Bowl – Win 2-1

• Lord Bonan vs Indibro (Tomb Kings) – Tie 2-2
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs SickAsEggs (Elven Union) – Loss 0-2
• Nickson104 vs Envoien (Chaos Dwarf) – Win 1-0
• Sizzler vs Dayday (Shambling Undead) – Win 2-0

Round 6 vs Team Waterbowl – Loss 1-2

The final round was a big one for us. We had clawed our way back into the top 10, and a potential 4-1-1 finish was within reach. Unfortunately, during this round Sizzler was no longer able to play for our team as a ringer, so we went into the round a match down. The team did our best, but we couldn’t make up for the auto-loss.

• Lord Bonan vs Steve O’Boyle (Amazon) – Tie 1-1
• Jimmy Dreambeard vs David De Fouw (Chaos Renegades) – Loss 0-1
• Nickson104 vs Tintenfisch (Shambling Undead) – Win 3-0
• Match not played – Default Loss

Round Up

• Lord Bonan, representing statistically the weakest race in the current edition, proved emphatically that sometimes statistics don’t tell the whole story. Defeated only once and roaring to a 2-3-1 finish, he and his goblins claimed the Stunty Cup!
• Jimmy Dreambeard, part of this year’s Europen squad, led his elves very proficiently through the tournament, ending with a solid 1-3-2 record.
• Nickson104 (me), also part of this year’s Europen squad and reprising Shambling Undead after playing them at last year’s Home Nations, finished with a 3-2-1 record.

These results led to a team record of 3-1-2, a very respectable finish considering the last-minute loss of our captain.

Thanks and Final Words

A big shout and thank you to my team, who were great lads and achieved some awesome results. Also a shout to the Welsh Bowl team for a solid result in a pool full of some of the strongest individuals in the world.

A special thank you to Sizzler for standing in and helping us out all weekend!And of course, a massive thank you to Jock and everyone involved in making the Home Nations happen. It’s a great tournament that has gotten better each year, and I’m very excited to see where it goes next year!