Cannons fight but fade against scratchy Puddlemere

Puddlemere United - 460* vs Chudley Cannons - 110

	Cannons	United
Keeper	Trimble (C)	Wood (C)
Chasers	Munch	Dingle
	Bell	Lochrin
	Oglethorpe	Blijk
Beaters	Wigglesworth	Blenkinsop
	Buttermere	Ellesmere
Seeker	Prang	Hawthorne

Perhaps the only easier first-up draw than to play the Chudley Cannons in Round 1, is to sit and watch the Cannons thrashed in Round 1 then line up against them a week later. This was the luxury Puddlemere United were faced with to open their campaign.

The news was not all good however. Veteran Seeker Donaghan Kiddell was forced to miss the game to be at the birth of his thirteenth child. This gave promising young Hugo Hawthorne a chance to make just his second professional start. But the already inexperienced Puddlemere line-up now looked decidedly junior with only captain Oliver Wood above 22 years of age and with more than two years’ experience in the league.

Puddlemere’s greenness is clearly a problem they will struggle to overcome this year, for even the Cannons were able to expose genuine fragility. To the shock and awe of all present, it was Chudley who had the run of the early exchanges. Only Oliver Wood’s inevitable excellence prevented the Cannons from running away to a sizable early lead.

The Cannons were unrecognisable from last week’s fools, adding fuel to the divisive match-fixing issue that some had ventured to raise from their trashing at the hands of the Prides. but In the Chaser contest the Cannons were every bit a match for United, but aiding Wood were Dougal Blenkinsop and Gunther Ellesmere who wielded their Beaters bats with precision and power. This was enough to slowly gain control and build a small but notable advantage of 90 by the end of the second hour.

The snitch was a lively one, appearing often and obviously. Hugo Hawthorne was unsurprisingly the dominant partner compared to poor old Percy Prang, but to the dismay and bemusement of all United fans, Hawthorne seemed intent on only defence, preventing Prang from a look at the snitch. With the change from the former for and against system to the current points percentage system, there was no logical reason why Hawthorne should want to prolong the game other than perhaps giving his team much needed game-time in preparation for tougher opponents. But with the margin less than 150 and the game still open this was a sterling risk.

As the third hour concluded so did Chudley’s fight, with unfortunate mishaps once again taking their toll. Puddlemere’s lead snuck over 200 before Hawthorne bemusing game took one final twist. Counter-intuitively, having delayed the game when it was alive, Hawthorne now stepped up and looked to end the game when it was dead. At this juncture deliberate baulking could have been justified, as Puddlemere’s early bye and strange second round contest meant they would go into Round 3’s tough clash with the Arrows underdone. But Hawthorne was in a world of his own, swooping low to take the snitch and end the game inside three hours.

Puddlemere United - 460: Lochrin 20, Blijk 7, Dingle 4, Hawthorne Capture

Chudley Cannons - 110: Munch 10, Oglethorpe 1

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: OLIVER WOOD (PUDDLEMERE)