34 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

The worst of it is I know he IS effectively describing the answer....

It's staring me in the face...

And I'm still overthinking it

Ha, I've never been accused of overthinking anything - and I still have NFI of the answer.

I thought this one was all over, but, out of the clouds has come @Tim to correctly and succinctly articulate the balance. Welcome to Demonland Puzzledom, Tim*, and enjoy your 'silver' of quiet satisfaction.

I feel bound now to upgrade @Demonstone's participation award to the 'bronze'. With early dedication, he established that the totals of the letters of the players' given names and family names were the same (136). Definitely a 'balance' I hadn't considered, a direct arithmetic consequence of the full answer, and true of the team list. But it missed the further balances in the team as positioned. @Ghostwriter twigged early that there must be a reason why I had to call our coach 'Steve'.

The given names and family names of the players in my 'spine' - the centre column - are all in balance, having the same number of letters. Down the outer side of my field - the left column - the given names all have one letter less than the family names, but that's balanced down the other side - the right column - by the given names having one letter more than the family names.

'Counting on me to spell out the answer'? 'Centre your thoughts and you'll be left right there with the answer.'

@beelzebub started to get close but he was looking across the lines. I'll give your VC-grade participation ribbon to him, Mr Stone, if that's OK? I'll dust off my own Grade 1 egg-and-spoon an sack race ribbons to placate @Little Goffy and @Neil Crompton.

Thanks for playing, everyone. As usual, I feel bound to apologise!

(*I assure players Tim and I are 2 different people, btw. He's not a straw-man me to help bring this to a close!)

5 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

I thought this one was all over, but, out of the clouds has come @Tim to correctly and succinctly articulate the balance. Welcome to Demonland Puzzledom, Tim*, and enjoy your 'silver' of quiet satisfaction.

Same way I enjoyed mine… quiet as a mouse 😁

Oh, btw, not sure if I’ve told y’all already but…

I BEAT DEMONSTONE!!!

16 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

I thought this one was all over, but, out of the clouds has come @Tim to correctly and succinctly articulate the balance. Welcome to Demonland Puzzledom, Tim*, and enjoy your 'silver' of quiet satisfaction.

I feel bound now to upgrade @Demonstone's participation award to the 'bronze'. With early dedication, he established that the totals of the letters of the players' given names and family names were the same (136). Definitely a 'balance' I hadn't considered, a direct arithmetic consequence of the full answer, and true of the team list. But it missed the further balances in the team as positioned. @Ghostwriter twigged early that there must be a reason why I had to call our coach 'Steve'.

The given names and family names of the players in my 'spine' - the centre column - are all in balance, having the same number of letters. Down the outer side of my field - the left column - the given names all have one letter less than the family names, but that's balanced down the other side - the right column - by the given names having one letter more than the family names.

'Counting on me to spell out the answer'? 'Centre your thoughts and you'll be left right there with the answer.'

@beelzebub started to get close but he was looking across the lines. I'll give your VC-grade participation ribbon to him, Mr Stone, if that's OK? I'll dust off my own Grade 1 egg-and-spoon an sack race ribbons to placate @Little Goffy and @Neil Crompton.

Thanks for playing, everyone. As usual, I feel bound to apologise!

(*I assure players Tim and I are 2 different people, btw. He's not a straw-man me to help bring this to a close!)

Aaaaaaarrrrrrhggggggghhhhhhhh

Bugger [censored] [censored] bugger [censored]

...

I feel better now

Pray continue...

Well done to the winners...

Kudos...the task master

So my scrabble points theory was pretty close to the mark... sort of.

As per tradition, I will take my participation award and eat it.