By Snidget Broomsworth
It was a dark and stormy night.. Suddenly a shot rang out.
Well.. there wasn’t actually a shot. And it wasn’t dark.. But it WAS stormy! Sort of.
The first Quidditch match of the season was definitely one to watch, and also one to chat with your friends during thanks to the multitude of time outs for fouls.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The sleet was insane. It was cold, visibility was low, and there were plenty of prats on brooms for us slightly warmer, but just as soggy people to crank our necks back to watch.
It started with the hilarity of an own goal (echoing Ravenclaw’s first match last year) from a Gryffindor player who has swelled their ego so much it was a surprise that they even fit through the door to the pitch. To protect their identity, and the ego that the quaffle took a pin to, I shall call them Chaser Number Three, and definitely not because I have forgotten their name.
Thankfully it went uphill from there. I would have thought that going downhill would be better, as going uphill makes you puffed out and sweaty but I digress…. Again.
The match was pretty epic, as Quidditch matches go. There wasn’t ever any more than two minutes between goals keeping Slytherin and Gryffindor neck and neck throughout the entire match.
Isabella Watson proved why she had been chosen as captain by smashing in over half of all Gryffindor’s goals and the highest success rate out of all of the chasers on the pitch that day. Watson managed to get 50% of her aims through the hoops, compared to Slytherin’s leading chaser. Hawksworth may have gotten over three quarters of the Slytherin’s goals, but with a success rate of 39% there’s plenty of work to be done still!
Slytherin showed their sneaky side and ended up with two players sparked throughout the match for stealing in the scoring zone, Solidad and Hawksworth found themselves book ending the match from the sidelines for five minutes. This writer definitely has the opinion that I wouldn’t want to be around Slytherin and a box of chocolates, because the lack of passing of the quaffle makes me think I doubt I’d get a look in at any of their chocolates, even the awful almond ones.
Whilst Gryffindor’s defensive duo worked hard with their bludgers to keep the opposition out of the air, it was evident that O’Brien was more familiar in a different position to beater with Letsworth Prescott taking out most of the Slytherin players, even to the point that he was given a time out for attacking the Slytherin seeker too much. The Slytherin beaters found themselves with just as many warnings but luckily managed to avoid being caught for any blatant fouling.
And we can’t forget the fact that Slytherin and Gryffindor likely didn’t do better than they did due to the hard work of the keepers. Coletti and Ravenhurst both saved just short of half the quaffles aimed at them.
Whilst the work of the match went primarily to the chasers, the Slytherin Seeker, Cross, worked hard to bring home the gold – literally. He dove for the snitch and narrowly missed it eight times before catching it on his ninth attempt which was exceptionally lucky for them as they finished neck and neck 390-400 before the catch bringing the final score: 540-400.
Not. Bad.
