Kenmare Kestrels - 8790 vs Wigtown Wanderers - 5110

	Kestrels	Wanderers
Keeper	O’Hare (C)	Rostell
Chasers	McNally	Drummond
	O’Flanagan	Melvina
	Watkins	MacKenzie
Beaters	Tuckett	A.Parkin (C)
	Crumb	Thruston
Seeker	O’Flaherty	B.Parkin

Every once in a while comes a cathartic Quidditch experience that, for better or worse, those who saw it will remember for eternity. The hundred hour vigil at Exmoor this week was one such occasion.

The Kenmare Kestrels, despite their disappointing performance against the Tornados last time out, stayed true, making on changes. On the other hand there were two alterations to the Wanderer starting line-up. But these petty stats are meaningless, for all twenty-eight warriors played endless hours of Quidditch.

To try summarizing the match in any play-by-play fashion would be an exercise in the absurd. Suffice it to say that for the first two hours, a surprisingly nimble Wigtown led, but from there it was all Kenmare. Chasers Deirdre McNally and Diarmiad O’Flanagan were the class of the field, too fast and experienced for the still hesitant and un-unified Wanderer Chaser Unit to match.

In the fifth hour, with the Kestrels already well in control, Coinneach Crumb brutally felled Wigtown Captain and dominant Beater Alaistair Parkin, who was unable to return for nineteen hours. This as good as ended the match as a contest, with the Kestrels quickly pulling out beyond a hundred goals clear.

Unfortunately for all concerned, the match still had an entire three days to go. Having lifted off the turf at 7:30pm Sunday, the match ended with a lazy and rather fortuitous snitch catch from the understandably red faced Hilaria O’Flaherty (who at one point played 27 consecutive hours) 104 hours later, at 3:30am Friday.

Records tumbled left right and centre, the most astonishing being the milestone on Thursday afternoon when the match became the longest in Britain this century. The last BIQL match to reach 100 hours came in 1995.

A multi-day Quidditch marathon is a remarkable thing to witness. Inevitably such ‘contests’, if they can be called such, involve a huge and snitch marginalizing margin. But it’s more than that. It is like giving two trolls a wand and making them duel. There is an evil part of human nature that revels in watching such intense human decay and suffering, as hour after hour of increasingly tepid Quidditch passes. In technical terms these should be the worst games of all time, but the historical fanfare associated with the achievement of playing out and surviving the days and weeks of pain are something special. Considering the youth of both sides, in particular the Kestrels, the feat was yet more impressive.

Nobody will remember the final score, as is appropriate considering the ease of the Kestrels’ victory. But everyone who was there, most of whom stayed firm and did not leave for the entire course of match such was its cathartic appeal, will never forget.

The true eventualities resulting from this clash are far from clear yet. These will make themselves known over the coming weeks, as chronic fatigue takes hold over all twenty-eight bodies. In the cruellest of ironies, the Wanderers must back up inside of two days for their Saturday match against the Catapults. The Kestrels at least have a weekend of rest, but will be hard pressed against the undefeated Magpies.

Kenmare Kestrels - 8790: McNally 315, Mason 206, O'Flanagan 166, O'Shaughnessy 94, Watkins 55, Rosebottom 19, O'Hare 9, O'Flaherty Capture

Wigtown Wanderers - 5110: Drummond 265, Shimpling 101, Anstice 60, MacKenzie 42, Melvina 41, Beardsley 2

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: DEIRDRE McNALLY (KESTRELS)