Wanderer snatch forces titanic tie

Wigtown Wanderers - 570* vs Pride of Portree - 570

	Wanderers	Prides
Keeper	Warburton	McCormack
Chasers	Shimpling	McNewton
	Melvina	MacPunnet
	Anstice	Pilliwickle
Beaters	A.Parkin (C)	Van Hoorn
	Thruston	Stroulger (C)
Seeker	B.Parkin	McBride

Following on from the Bats win over the Cannons came another intriguing basement contest between two struggling teams. The Pride of Portree have looked marginally the consistently better team than the Wigtown Wanderers all year, which shows on the table with the Wanderers now stone-dead last thanks to Chudley entering the winner’s circle.

But the ladder was somewhat misleading, as Wigtown have been so awful as to earn the title of only team without a win half way through the season. The Wanderers’ squad is little different from the 2011 team which went within two weeks of the Grand Final. Based on that you would think the Wanderers are at the very least, more than a match for the Prides, especially considering last fortnight’s matches. Portree were insipid in their uninspiring loss to the Tornados, meanwhile Wigtown put in clearly the best performance of the year to genuinely push the Falcons.

Therefore it was somewhat of a surprise to see the Prides run away to such a decisive early lead. Manager Ione Ostensen chose not to cull the starting Chaser trio despite their awful histrionics against Tutshill. The only change to the team was the return of Mordred Van Hoorn to replace the clearly out of sorts Beater Justin Moriattis.  It was a decision that paid off handsomely, with the particularly under fire Stephanie Pilliwickle shining in the early exchanges, and Van Hoorn dominating the Bludger contests.

Wanderers manager Ralph Bobbin made the same singular change, replacing Randolph Toothill. But this was a rather less rewarding decision, as Cosmo Thruston looked clearly out of practice and out of his depth, aiding Wigtown’s early struggles.

The defining portion of the match was the first hour, as the slow-starting Wanderers let the Prides go clear by almost 150. But from then on it was every bit anybody’s game. Every position was evenly matched and for an extended period of more than three hours, nothing could split the teams in an astonishingly even and surprisingly quality contest.

The to and fro was captivating, with the Wanderers more structurally sound and able to score consistently, but the Prides athletic enough to preserve their exciting lead, which hovered interminably just under or over 150.

Just seconds into the fifth hour, the exhilarating extended last play began. Begonia Parkin caught sight of the snitch and hared after it, but Musidora McBride was able to take faster lines of attack and took the lead in the chase. But neither the out of the form veteran Parkin nor inexperienced McBride had what it took to finish the catch.

They soared from post to post, captivating player and crowd alike to the extent that nobody seemed to notice the critically important goals being scored. Chaser after Chaser snapped up a snitch and using both the visual distraction of physical impediment of the duelling Chasers, snuck another goal through.

Wanderers Alaisdair Parkin had once again played little part in the match. But he stepped up when it mattered, flooring McBride with an oomphy Bludger strike. This freed up his sister Begonia to stretch her legs.

As Begonia Parkin neared the snitch, with the Prides leading by 150, Aileen Anstice was able to score a crucial and potential match-winning goal. But in return Belarius McNewton darted quickly up field and surprised Marcie Warburton with a long shot to hit back for the Prides.

Barclay Shimpling went on the counter-attack in turn for the Wanderers, but before he could win the match for his team, the understandably oblivious Parkin, who had to fight the recovering McBride, snapped up the snitch.

For a few moments nobody was quite sure what happened before it became painfully clear to all present, that BIQL 2012 had seen its second tie.

The result may have been frustrating for both teams, but it was both a fair indication of the competitiveness of the match, and well and truly an appropriately dramatic result after such a spectacle.

Wigtown Wanderers - 570: Shimpling 18, Anstice 14, Melvina 10, B.Parkin Capture

Pride Of Portree - 570: MacPunnet 23, Pilliwickle 21, McNewton 13

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: STEPHANIE PILLIWICKLE (PRIDES)