5§ • Pertinent News for the Discerning Wizard • Tuesday . 10 October 1999
MONDAY MAYHEM: REFS STEP UP SCRUTINY WITH SECOND EJECTION
By: Margaret Urquhart
For the second match in a row, the referees ejected a player on Monday in the contest between the Pride of Portree and the Kenmare Kestrels. Even with their home stadium advantage at Connemara and the Pride's loss of a Chaser, Kenmare still couldn't claim a victory or even score enough goals to come from behind if they'd taken the snitch. Portree won 240 to 40 in just under three hours.
Kenmare played a heavily defensive match, holding Pride Chaser Sara Scrimgeour to nought and limiting the shots taken by Willison and Buchanan. Their own chasers too few shots resulting in the low score from Kenmare. The tight pressure on Portree's Chasers resulted in several aerial duels between Kenmare's Laura Wakefield and Pride newcomer Joy Willison. After two fouls for Wakefield and another for Willison, the referees ejected Willison for Broom-Burning.
Pride Coach Elspeth MacFusty played their reserve Seeker Finn MacDougal after starting Seeker Elliot MacAuley failed to take the Snitch in previous matches. Her tactic paid off when MacDougal took the snitch while still five goals ahead to clinch the victory for Portree under the leadership of Captain Oighrig MacDonald, returning from injured reserve.
With one more match in the bloc, fans look forward to seeing whether the topsy-turvy scoring and ejections continue or whether the referees and players come to a happy medium of scoring and fair, safe play.