Timely Catapult capture shocks Magpies

Caerphilly Catapults - 240* vs Montrose Magpies - 200

	Magpies	Catapults
Keeper	Wintringham	Carrington
Chasers	Keitch (C)	Gwenhwyfar
	MacLean	Lympsham
	McTavish	Lafarge
Beaters	Moriattis	Lofthouse (C)
	Ollerton	Aderonis
Seeker	Abberley	Bryson

A few weeks ago, even entertaining the notion that a Magpies-Catapults match could be genuinely competitive would be laughable. The Magpies were unstoppable for the most of the season, undefeated at the head of the ladder until the final two rounds.

The Catapults have been impressive, but they are young and building team, a clear step below what could be thought of as the ‘big six’. Based on the promise of this year, premiership glory can come within a few short years, but surely not yet in 2012.

However on the evidence of the final two rounds, the Magpies may just be sensationally collapsing. The early encounter between these two teams this season was won by the Magpies 200-40 within half an hour, providing no semblance of predictive form other than a reminder that snitches can be caught earlier, surely no comfort to the antsy and paranoid Magpies.

But thoughts of the Magpies being dead and burired are dangerous to entertain as both Montrose’s season-ending losses were to high level opposition in the Wasps and Harpies. Writing them off could just be spur needed to kick Montrose back to the top of their game and ultimately on to this year’s title.

All things considered, the Magpies most certainly entered this match as heavy favourites. Just to reinforce that the ultimate confidence in their 2012 campaign was still there, Magpies manager Amedeus Pagley did not react unduly to the twin lead-up losses, retaining his ensconsed line-up. Although Catapults manager Alwyn Arianrhod likewise saw no reason for change.

As had happened when these two teams met in Round 6, the Catapults surprised off the blocks, with Crisiant Lafarge energetically leading them to an early narrow lead.

Finding themselves 50-30 down after twenty minutes in the wake of their recent form and luck must have been terrifying for Magpies fans, but their boys with the Quaffle got them out of jail for now. Captain Royden Keitch, who had looked particularly lethargic in recent weeks, led the way as Montrose easily overtook their inexperienced opponents and began to draw a way.

But the utter ruthlessness that had characterized Montrose’s early season dominance was not quite there. The skills of the Magpie Chasers were brilliant as ever, but their physical supremacy, as well as the devastating in-your-face presence of Beaters Mulciber Moriattis and Zachariah Ollerton, still looked to be a little missing. There was a feeling of uncertainty bred by the recent defeats.

The Montrose Magpies are an ultra-high quality Quidditch team who are clearly putting the disappointment of losing the minor-premiership behind them. This performance saw only slight and temporary teething problems. But at this stage of the season, there is not the time or leeway for even such minor weaknesses. The slow start and lack of ruthlessness combined to see Caerphilly still within 150 at the two-hour mark.

This was the difference on the day.

In a shocking and thrilling conclusion, Brynmor Bryson was able to narrowly avoid  an Ollerton Bludger which spiralled into Alison Abberley’s path, feeing Bryson to catch the snitch and the Catapults an astonishing upset win.

For the Magpies, it is now three losses straight and very much panic stations.

But at least they remain alive. Spare a thought for the reigning champion Tutshill Tornados who now know, from the discomfort of their living rooms, that their title defence is over.


Caerphilly Catapults - 240: Lafarge 6, Gwenhwyfar 2, Lympsham 1, Bryson Capture
Montrose Magpies - 200: MacLean 8, Keitch 7, McTavish 5


PLAYER OF THE MATCH: ROYDEN KEITCH (MAGPIES)

Tornados fail to rise to Appleby challenge

Appleby Arrows - 710* vs Tutshill Tornados - 340

	Arrows	Tornados
Keeper	Delaney	Stainwright (C)
Chasers	Fladbury (C)	Culberry
	Cauldwell	Birch
	Comstock	Entwistle
Beaters	Flitley	Jenkins
	Belcher	Fitzpatrick
Seeker	Sapworthy	Muntz

The Arrows and Tornados seasons were of similar high (but not cloud-busting) quality. But such was the tightness of the competition in the middle of the top eight, they ended up separated by three places.

The Tornados have not reached the heights of their championship year. Led by the devastating Blodwen Birch, they have been efficient and reliable, winning everywhere they should rightly be expected to. But the problem was quite clearly the lack of ability to beat the good teams. All five teams above Tutshill on the ladder bested them during the season.

Naturally this included the Arrows, who overcame a shaky start to show some vintage form, reminiscent of their 2006 and 2009 title years. As the only team to have defeated the table-topping Wasps this year, there is a certain aura about the 2012 Arrows. But first they had to overcome a team who were very close behind them, a match in every department on paper.

Both teams made a rather interesting and similar change, returning struggling veterans into the side on the value of their proven finals experience, over form.

For the Arrows’ Cuthbert Croaker it was particularly bad luck. He had done little wrong yet found himself on the outer to make way for Rosalind Comstock. Meanwhile Tornados manager Jolyun Ancrum returned Alaricus Jenkins, on the back of a dominating performance for Wales last week against Transylvania, over Andros White.

Maeve Halcyeone is a smart woman. From the outset her faith was rewarded, as Comstock gelled perfectly with Katherine Cauldwell and captain Violetta Fladbury.

It was all Appleby as they utterly dominated in every facet of the game, in particular in the Bludging department. Neither Jenkins nor Cepheus Fitzpatric were unduly incompetent, but their combination was clearly rusty after so many weeks apart. Only perfection will do when you’re up against Ragmar Flitley and Gifford Belcher.

Blodwen Birch was predictably the Tornados’ best, but so unfailingly targeted was she by Belcher in particular, that she was powerless to halt the Arrows charge.

It was Calliope Entwistle though, on the back of a disappointing season compared to her heroics in 2011, who once again rose to the finals occasion as she so often does.

Entwistle, less focused on by the Arrows defence, was able to sneak the Tornados temporarily back into the contest in the third hour.

But the Arrows’ lead dipped under 150 only briefly. Belcher made doubly sore of Appleby victory when he viciously took down Tornado captain Lucian Stainwright as he attempted to save a Cauldwell shot. The goals leaked in at will once again and left Mille Sapworthy the small task of snapping up the snitch to embellish a highly polished performance.

Tutshill must now hope and prey that neither the Catapults nor Kestrels will pull an astonishing upset and end their title defence unexpectedly early.

Appleby Arrows - 710: Cauldwell 24, Fladbury 21, Comstock 11, Sapworthy Capture

Tutshill Tornados - 340: Entwistle 13, Birch 12, Culberry 9

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: GIFFORD BELCHER (ARROWS)

Harpies sneak past fading Falcons

Holyhead Harpies - 500* vs Falmouth Falcons - 430

	Falcons	Harpies
Keeper	Frobisher	Weatherwax
Chasers	Grinderford (C)	Birchgrove
	Meadows	Gladstone (C)
	Goodfellow	Barnacle
Beaters	Bundy	Tolipan
	Wagtail	Gibberd
Seeker	Mostafa	Bloch

And so it came down to the real business end of things. Finals time, and a mouth-watering prospect first up, with the fourth placed Falmouth Falcons facing the fifth placed Holyhead Harpies.

The two teams finished just a point apart on the ladder, with the Falcons winning eight of their twelve games compared to the Harpies’ seven plus a tie.

This was an intriguing clash as Falmouth and Holyhead were, depending how you really looked at it, two very different teams, but with two very similar seasons.

Both seem to lack that top end class really needed to make a decisive claim. Both have had extremely strong, indeed surprisingly strong seasons considering their respective rosters, but neither exudes an air of confidence, an aura that there is any real chance of a BIQL title in either of them. Not in 2012 anyway.

But as teams these two could not be more different both in structure and in result, although they do share a strange incongruity between approach and dividend. The Falcons’ are the epitome of brute force yet total consistency, efficiently dominating lesser opponents on the back of their talismanic captain Marina Grinderford’s goal-scoring prowess. But they seem to lack a second gear for when the occasion really warrants it.

On the other side of the Galleon, the Harpies are extremely subtle and tactical in their gameplans, yet extremely volatile somehow. The Harpies are a contrast between baffling collapses to the likes of Chudley and Wigtown, while somehow playing like world beaters in defating three of the four teams above them on the ladder. Wins over the Arrows and in particular the Magpies were impressive, but the third higher-finishing rival to fall to Holyhead was the Falcons.

Holyhead’s early-season 1470-1110 win over Falmouth was certainly memorable by virtue of its epic length and gladiatorial quality, but it should have represented little. The match was way back in Round three, not to mention the fact that it was the Harpies reserves who did most of the damage.

The Falcons starters had a clear advantage over their counterparts in every position, an advantage only amplified by the absence of ill Harpies captain Gwenevak Glossop. Therefore, as the higher team on the ladder aswell, the Falcons deserved to be favourites.

But clearly Holyhead took a great deal of confidence from their previous triumph, as they shot off the blocks, dominating the early moments.

The Quidditch quality was immediately inspiring. It is remarkable how every year from the very first game a clear statement is made by each of the Top Eight teams saying ‘this is finals Quidditch, and this is how good we can be.’

But it was the Harpies who were particularly good, running away to a ninety point lead in the second hour before a slow-starting Marina Grinderford finally got going.

Grinderford had been criticized for dropping off over the second half of the season, but she put any rumours of fatigue to bed with a performance of mindblowing dominance and skill. At one point Grinderford scored seven consecutive goals, unanswered by either her team-mates or opponents.

With fellow England international Fairfax Meadows in support, the Falcons were able to easily overhaul the early deficit and begin to pull clear. With Glossop missing, the Harpies lacked Chaser direction. Stand-in captain Generys Gladstone was full of individual brilliance, but was struggling to marshall the potential maximum out of Gweneth Birchgrove or Gwendoline Barnacle.

The Falcons may have dominated the Chaser contest, but they weren’t having it all their own way. The most decisively relevatory surprise of the day was the performance of Talulah Tolipan and Rohesia Gibberd. As ever the pair lacked the natural devastation of some of the world’s best Beaters, but their determination and work ethic was second-to-none and as the game progressed their dominance over a rather shellshocked Cyprian Bundy and Gordon Wagtail only increased.

Without high quality Chaser support, Tolipan and Gibberd’s efforts did not quite allow the Harpies to regain any fundamental ascendancy, but it kept them close. After four tough hours the frustrated Falcons were still less than one hundred clear. It was clear why they were antsy, and the frustrations proved anything but unfounded when Zelda Bloch snapped inevitably into action. Bloch easily outstripped Oakden Mostafa to the snitch early in the fifth hour, so it was the Harpies who took the first finals success.

The Falcons now had a minorly nervous wait and would hope the remaining three favourites all do their business well enough to keep them fighting another day.

Holyhead Harpies - 500: Gladstone 19, Birchgrove 9, Barnacle 7, Bloch Capture

Falmouth Falcons - 430: Grinderford 30, Goodfellow 7, Meadows 6

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: MARINA GRINDERFORD (FALCONS)

Round 13 Results and Standings

Round 13 Results

Montrose Magpies	830	vs	Holyhead Harpies	880*
Wigtown Wanderers	330*	vs	Ballycastle Bats	330
Appleby Arrows	580*	vs	Caerphilly Catapults	300
Pride Of Portree	80	vs	Puddlemere United	560*
Falmouth Falcons	900*	vs	Chudley Cannons	50
Kenmare Kestrels	220	vs	Wimbourne Wasps	580*
Tutshill Tornados		vs	BYE

2012 League Cup Standings - FINAL

Pos.	Team	P	W	L	T	B	+	-	%	Points
1	Wimbourne Wasps	12	11	1	0	1	7720	3440	69.18	24
2	Montrose Magpies	12	10	2	0	1	6250	3480	64.23	22
3	Appleby Arrows	12	8	4	0	1	8290	6540	55.90	18
4	Falmouth Falcons	12	8	4	0	1	7600	6170	55.19	18
5	Holyhead Harpies	12	7	4	1	1	7970	7150	52.71	17
6	Tutshill Tornados	12	7	5	0	1	5820	4600	55.85	14
7	Caerphilly Catapults	12	5	6	1	1	4660	4780	49.36	13
8	Kenmare Kestrels	12	5	7	0	1	12820	9000	58.75	12
9	Wigtown Wanderers	12	3	7	2	1	9630	13360	41.89	10
10	Puddlemere United	12	4	8	0	1	3650	6300	36.87	10
11	Ballycastle Bats	12	2	7	3	1	3970	4720	45.68	9
12	Pride Of Portree	12	3	8	1	1	4880	6000	44.85	9
13	Chudley Cannons	12	1	11	0	1	1860	9610	16.22	4

Finals Week 1 Schedule

Friday June 29

7:30pm: Falmouth Falcons (4th) vs Holyhead Harpies (5th) @ Bodmin Moor

Saturday June 30

2:30pm: Appleby Arrows (3rd) vs Tutshill Tornados (6th) @ Ellis Moor

7:30pm: Montrose Magpies (2nd) vs Caerphilly Catapults (7th) @ Bodmin Moor

Sunday July 1

2:30pm: Wimbourne Wasps (1st) vs Kenmare Kestrels (8th) @ Ellis Moor