From the Daily Prophet of 3 September, 2000

Puddlemere beats down Prides

Bludger hit helps United avoid upset

By Murray Pope

PORTREE, Isle of Skye -- A newcomer stole the show as the new season began Saturday, and surprisingly, it wasn't Harry Potter.

With the Boy Who Lived watching his first match as a member of Puddlemere United from the sideline, young Beater Gerald Eddington delivered the big blow that crushed a game effort by the Pride of Portree. Eddington's bone-cracking Bludger turned the momentum after the home side's fast start, propelling powerful Puddlemere to a deceptively difficult 290-90 season-opening victory at Star Stadium.

"It's great to get that first win in the first match," Puddlemere manager Glenn Watson said. "It makes things so much easier when you start the season with a result and go to the top of the table rather than the bottom."

But for most of the match, a result seemed very much in doubt for Watson's heavily favoured side.

The Prides' Chasers befuddled United for the first hour and a quarter with an aggressive zone defence, clogging the edge of the scoring area and looking for chances to counter. The last came at the 72-minute mark when Neil Walton stole the Quaffle and raced in alone to give Portree a shock 90-80 lead.

Then Eddington rescued Puddlemere with his bat.

In the 76th minute, the 20-year-old -- playing in his first United match after a summer transfer from Ballycastle -- positioned himself for a hit just as team-mate Hernando Chavez made a cut toward the Portree hoops under pressure.

"I saw their Chaser (Thora Sigurdardottir) closing in on Hernando and I knew he wasn't going to get open for a shot without support," Eddington said. "I figured I could give him some space so I just hit the Bludger as hard as I could in that direction."

Eddington's aim was perfect and Sigurdardottir, who was angled in the other direction, never saw the iron ball coming. The Bludger caught her squarely on the right upper arm, nearly knocking her from her broom and drawing loud groans from a sell-out crowd of 6,413 that was split almost evenly between Portree and Puddlemere supporters.

"I guess the idea worked," Eddington said. "I did get Hernando clear."

Chavez scored the tying goal on a pass from Corinne Kiely just seconds later, starting a run of 210 unanswered points for United that was capped by Seeker Samuel Diop's 97th-minute capture.

"It was a key goal and it was easy thanks to Gerald," Chavez said. "I was unmarked."

Sigurdardottir, who had effectively shut down Chavez until that point, remained in the match despite what would later be diagnosed as a hairline fracture of the humerus. But the dogged Iceland international was visibly slowed on defence thereafter and her passing became erratic.

"It's really a shame," Portree manager Michelle MacDonald said. "Thora was having a great match before she was hit. Chavez is a brilliant scorer and she wasn't giving him an inch. She was probably the main reason we were ahead at that point."

"You never want to see a player hit that hard with a Bludger, but it was a fair play and it came at just the right time for us," Watson said. "It really gave us the spark we needed to put paid to the match."

The result gave Puddlemere three straight opening-day victories and none was bigger than Saturday's. For a United side with its eyes set on a championship, a loss to the Prides -- who won just eight matches last season -- could have been a crippling early blow.

"I think we're all breathing a sigh of relief," Puddlemere Keeper Oliver Wood said. "We were not on top form today -- far from it -- and we could have easily panicked and lost the match. That we toughed it out and won is a huge lift, both for our position in the table and our confidence."

Eddington agreed.

"When I was with the Bats last year, this was the kind of match we always let slip away. To finish strong and win such a close game will give us a nice boost going home," the day's hero said, referring to next week's Nimbus Arena debut against Caerphilly.

Meanwhile, the Prides were left to take solace in their determined upset bid.

"We played very well so it was disappointing to see the match end the way it did," said Portree captain Hamish Bruce. "We know Puddlemere's got a right strong side though, and I reckon we'll win a lot of matches this year if we can keep working as hard as we did today."

The Puddlemere Chasers, who had been creating vast amounts of possession but few scoring chances before Eddington's pivotal hit, dominated the game after it. Just two minutes after Chavez's equaliser, Kiely sliced into the scoring area and stuffed a perfect pass from skipper Siobhan Moran into the left hoop for a 100-90 United lead.

Chavez doubled the advantage in the 83rd minute, bumping past Sigurdardottir for a wide-open shot that left Portree keeper Meaghan McCormick with no chance. Goals from Moran and Chavez followed in the next five minutes to give United a 130-90 edge.

"It took a while for us to start going," said Chavez, who finished with four goals. "But after the equaliser we knew it was our match. We made a good run."

Diop put the exclamation point on the surge.

After enduring a match-long Bludger assault from Bruce, the man who started ahead of Potter finally found room for relatively undisturbed hunting as the Prides tried desperately to slow the United Chasers. Diop quickly took advantage, ending the match with his second smart move in a matter of minutes.

As he looped around the south end of the pitch in the 97th minute with Portree counterpart Nairne Kerr following closely, the Senegalese Seeker keenly spotted the Snitch hiding in Kiely's robes. Diop jumped to pace, and using his momentum to shake off Kerr's valiant attempt to tackle him from behind, broke into the clear. It took him only a few seconds to chase the golden ball to ground level and capture the deciding 150 points for Puddlemere.

"My team needed me to get the Snitch," said Diop, who recorded his 37th capture in 49 matches with United. "(Portree) made it hard, but I did it."

"Samuel's great in close matches. He saw a lot of defensive pressure today and he fought through it for his capture," said Watson, who pointed to MacDonald's decision to move Bruce off his harassment role as the final factor in the United victory.

"I knew then that the match was ours," he said. "Kerr's a fine Seeker, but marking Samuel without support and hunting for the Snitch at the same time is almost impossible."

Still, it was a change MacDonald felt she had to make.

"Hamish did well keeping Diop off kilter for most of the match," the Portree manager said. "I really didn't want to change tactics, but we had to do something to break their Chasers' momentum. I suppose it was the wrong decision in the end."

It was in the early stages of the match that every decision made by the Prides seemed to work perfectly.

After Kiely gave United an early 30-10 lead with the second of her game-high seven goals, MacDonald shifted her team into the zone defence and Puddlemere's offensive opportunities almost vanished. The two sides traded attack and counterattack over the following 45 minutes and United held a 60-50 lead at the hour mark.

Then Walton, playing at the top of the Portree zone, seemed to figure out the Puddlemere passing scheme, intercepting a series of passes and sending away team-mate Abdullah Al Dosari for a pair of goals that levelled the score at 80. Walton's goal in the 72nd minute gave Portree its only lead.

The Prides' Chasers finished the match with three goals apiece. According to MacDonald, team mediwizards expect Sigurdardottir to be fit in time for next week's fixture at Wimbourne.

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Murray Pope covers Portree for the Daily Prophet. Owl him at thedpreporting(at)yahoo(dot)com.

A/N: I've hit a bit of a lull in my writing so I might take a bit of a break from posting after this article. But I figured I should at least give you the first game first in thanks for all the reviews. I really appreciate all your comments! When it comes out, you can look for Harry's perspective on this match in Chapter 27.

To see the latest league tables, check out www(dot)phoenixsong(dot)net/symphony/story(dot)php?cid1849.

Thanks also to LadyChi, Nancy and Promethean Alchemist for their beta work and to Jeconais for helping post with the tables.