Harpies outgun Arrows in controversial blockbuster

Holyhead Harpies - 1640* vs Appleby Arrows - 1410

	Arrows	Harpies
Keeper	Delaney	Weatherwax
Chasers	Fladbury (C)	Glossop (C)
	Comstock	Gladstone
	Applebee	Birchgrove
Beaters	Flitley	Tolipan
	Belcher	Samuels
Seeker	Sapworthy	Bloch

Under normal circumstances, this is always one of the year’s most exciting clashes. Two of the League’s most historically distinguished clubs and modern-day rich marquees in a particularly passionate grudge match.

Emotions this year are extra-raw after the Arrows snuck into the finals in 8^th ahead of the Harpies in 2011 with a thrilling late-season win.

However this time the circumstances were far from normal, promising perhaps an even better spectacle, or a walk-over if most recent results were to be taken into consideration.

The Appleby Arrows entered this week on the back of a stunning upset over the Wimbourne Wasps which has redefined all expectations of them for this season. The sky is now the limit.

The Holyhead Harpies’ last match was a decidedly less triumphant affair, as they suffered that singular unmatched horror in Quidditch on the British Isles, defeat at the hands of the Chudley Cannons.

Considering the Arrows also entered this match with a sizeable break of fifteen days, compared to the Harpies who publicly complained about the mere five day turnaround, every indication pointed to an Arrow victory.

But the ladies are resilient down there in Holyhead. Having overcome the horrors of 2011 and the genuine possibility of staring down that same barrel-early season, it takes more than one surprise loss to derail the Harpies. Even more so when the loss was such a fortuitous one, the result of an early snitch catch not the ability of both sides. Their first wise decision was to recognise this misfortune and stick true to their proven and impressive starting seven.

From the start it was clear this was going to be a tight and captivating encounter. Within minutes all lead-up context was made irrelevant. All one could think of was the here and now of this absorbing Quidditch contest.

In the early hours, every position’s battle was an intriguing one. The greatest intrigue surrounded Violetta Fladbury and Gwenevak Glossop, two erstwhile nineties prodigies now leading their teams with experience and nous at the back-end of distinguished careers. Their battle, more psychological and tactical than physical as less-hands on captains these days, was nevertheless fascinating. Fladbury’s steadfast defence was supported brilliantly by Rosalind Comstock and Cameron Applebee. The Harpies had clearly the better Chasers when getting forward on the attack though, with Gweneth Birchgrove dominating the scoresheets.

With Bludger Bats in hand, the Harpies comparatively inexperienced pair was never going to match the dream team of Ragmar Flitley and Gifford Belcher. But for the majority of the match their expertise served only to keep the Arrows in it, not in control.

The obstinate Arrow defence kept them in touch thereabouts, and kept the match to a particularly low scoring rate, but the Harpies clearly had the run of play.

But when the six hour interchanges came, the balance shifted. The Arrows lost Beater control but made up for it with the Chaser infusion. The Harpies’ replacement Chasers, Eduaphora Gallies, Gwynedd Gaenor and Gwendoline Barnacle, lived up to their predecessors admirably. This allowed the Harpies to maintain scoreboard control. But Cuthbert Croaker and Severus McClivert’s more assertive physical presence stemmed the tide, while Katherine Cauldwell provided an attacking flair that was previously lacking.

Luckily for Holyhead, the lack of Flitley and Belcher was telling and so their margin hovered consistently around 250-300. It was after eight hours that the final decisive game-changing moment came. Recognising that with their added presence Appleby could take full control of the contest, Flitley and Belcher chose to forego their extended interval on the sidelines and risked extreme fatigue to return to the game.

For the next four hours the Arrows controlled the play, slowly weeding back within the snitch margin and beyond. But as ever the difference between the two teams was miniscule and it was anybody’s game.

With such a tight score-line and after fifteen hours of pure drama, it was inevitably always going to come down to a moment of controversy at the end. With the Harpies leading narrowly and Millie Sapworthy and Zelda Bloch closing on the snitch, the slightly training Sapworthy was fouled and ruled back to goal for apparently grabbing at Bloch’s broom-tail. To most who saw it, Sapworthy did not look to have altered her movement outside the reasonable reaching for a snitch, while Bloch was seen to clearly change direction, stroking her broom alongside Sapworthy’s hand to cause the impediment.

This second questionable decision came after Talulah Tolipan, just seconds earlier, had gotten away with a waist-on-waist blocking charge against Sapworthy with no Bludger in play nearby.

Bloch duly obliged and took the snitch, to hand the Harpies a controversial but undeniably awesome victory.

Holyhead Harpies - 1640: Birchgrove 56, Gallies 30, Gladstone 30, Barnacle 13, Glossop 12, Gaenor 8, Bloch Capture

Appleby Arrows - 1410: Cauldwell 52, Fladbury 41, Comstock 15, Applebee 14, McClivert 14, Croaker 5