Aggressive Arrows beat down battling Ballycastle

Appleby Arrows - 730* vs Ballycastle Bats - 390

	Bats	Arrows
Keeper	Malkin	Delaney
Chasers	Quigley	Fladbury (C)
	Prod	Cauldwell
	Thomsonicle	Applebee
Beaters	Nutter	Flitley
	Skively	Belcher
Seeker	Shettigar (C)	Sapworthy

Maeve Halcyeone was certainly no less than forthcoming in expressing her disappointment at the Arrows’ tight and epic loss to the Harpies last week. Appleby’s performance was far from discouraging, especially on the back of such a triumph against the Wasps. But Halcyeone considers her team genuine premiership chances and won’t except even the most gallant of losses against fellow top teams.

The Ballycastle Bats of 2012 have been far from a top team, so were not expected to present a great deal of a challenge. But the all-international Chaser trio of Demeter Quigley, Clay Prod and Ignotus Thomsonicle cannot be underestimated. Such is their experience that the Bats’ Chasers total games accumulated to more than the Arrows, despite the 23-year marathon career of Violetta Fladbury.

One must wonder if all that Quidditch is beginning to catch up with the 41 year old Arrows captain, for she was decidedly flat today. Quigley though was absolutely stellar, dominating play to such an extent that Ballycastle were surprise leaders throughout the first hour.

But the devastating influence of the League’s most accomplished Beaters can only be muted for so long. Having slowly played into the game, Gifford Belcher and Ragmar Flitley utterly took it over in the second hour, flooring all three Bats Chasers at one point.

Fladbury remained below her best, but having replaced the faltering Rosalind Comstock for this match, Katherine Cauldwell provided a fresh infusion of energy. Shepherding brilliantly off the back of her dominating Beaters, Cauldwell asserted herself as the dominant Chaser, working with aplomb and vigour. With Ajax Shettigar on the prowl, quick scoring was the name of the game as the Arrows worked to get their lead beyond 150.

In a happy coincidence, it was right as the Arrows lead crosses the threshold that the snitch came into close view for the pair of Seekers. But the margin quickly became an irrelevance when Ragmey Flitley swept in front of Shettigar and viciously sent him bleeding and writhing to ground with a close range Bludger to the face.

Millie Sapworthy was free and uncontested and needed only a few more minutes to seal a tough but impressive victory for her team in what was an absorbing contest.

Appleby Arrows - 730: Cauldwell 36, Applebee 13, Fladbury 11, Sapworthy Capture

Ballycastle Bats - 390: Quigley 25, Prod 7, Thomsonicle 7

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: KATHERINE CAULDWELL (ARROWS)