The Golden Neep IC

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Montrose Magpies (11-0-0 1.000) versus Falmouth Falcons (3-7-1 0.273)
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Play Started:2000-04-12 at Scottish National (The Lamb)
Snitch caught in : 3 hours, 38 minutes
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Montrose Magpies : 630
Falmouth Falcons : 220
Congratulations, Montrose Magpies
( And that's a wrap for the regular season, with no deaths to speak of, again. Look for playoff schedules and times in the Daily Prophet and other sources of news... )

Who: Jason & Jamie
What: A check in and an invitation
When: Monday, 19 March
Where: Sweden!
Warnings: Discussions of broken things like brooms and shoulders.

( I had to make sure you’re not giving away details of the new line. That and see what you did to my broom. )

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Kenmare Kestrels (7-3-0 0.700) versus Montrose Magpies (10-0-0 1.000)
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Play Started:2000-03-24 at Irish National (Conamara)
Snitch caught in : 7 hours, 18 minutes
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Kenmare Kestrels : 190
Montrose Magpies : 590
Congratulations, Montrose Magpies
( That'll bring the block's average up. It'll bring a lot of the league's averages up... )

[Montrose+]

A few announcements before the lineup and strategy talk in a few days:

First. Ernie Macmillan is testing out a new motion capture technology, which you all have already seen and tested in a previous practice but Friday will be the more public test he’s doing. I know it’s the day before the match, but luckily we keep those practices light anyway.

Morning will be warmup then Gregor will be running you through some drills he’ll decide on. No new techniques, formations, or plays. Treat this as a public exhibition.

Kestrels are on the 24th. Do Not Get Injured before then.

Portree plays on the 20th. Dani, can we get a box for the team to watch from? Remember everyone, this is the last Portree match before the Neep. They might be saving some of their starters but since we’ve last faced them they have 2 new starters and are finally playing their reserves (of which 1 reserve is also new since the Fall Classic..)

Note for chasers: Special attention on their new chaser, Pepper. And McCormack. They gave her a break last match so she might be extra intense on this one.

Not an announcement but congratulations Jason on finishing what sounded like a truly mad Annual Broom Race. We’re all very proud of you for it.

[Gregor]

For Friday morning for the Macmillan lad’s demonstration, throw the normal practice plans out. We don’t know who he invited and I’d rather treat it as a public exhibition of sorts with just a smaller audience. Classic skills drills, the more movement the better, but I’ll let you plan and decide on what. Have fun with it, make the players look good.

And we have a few other things we’ll need to start talking about.

[Florrie]

Alright. Of these 4, who’s in the best flying shape for next match.

Maddock
Jason
Ada
Kal

Who: Jason King
What: The Annual Broom Race
When: Sunday, 18 March 2000
Where: Sweden!
Warnings: Minor violence.

( The Annual Broom Race; things about to get real. )

Ultimately unsent
[Jason]
I know you heard Lex's howler. Turns out all the Yaxley siblings got one. Old auntie Yaxley doesn't think much of me. Wouldn't care about being disowned from the old bint's house when we would never go there anyway except she called my kids mongrels and they heard.

If I need an alibi when I burn down her house, I'm saying I was with you the whole time.


And I'm complaining to someone who went through worse than hearing a mean word never mind

TO: Jason King
FROM: Percy Weasley
WHEN: Sunday evening, 11 March 2000

( Enclosed: One Portkey )

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Montrose Magpies (9-0-0 1.000) versus Wigtown Wanderers (4-5-0 0.444)
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Play Started:2000-03-11 at Scottish National Stadium at The Lamb
Snitch caught in : 6 hours, 0 minutes
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Montrose Magpies : 950
Wigtown Wanderers : 940
Congratulations, Montrose Magpies
( It's always a sad day when they don't let us out of the stadium until after happy hour ends... )

[Montrose +]

Time to take on the last scottish team! We have a bit of experience playing with and against them from the charity match and unfortunately that means the opposite too so they will be a bit more ready for some of our tricks.

This is a mediocre write-off season for them (they’re 4-5), but it’s a rebuilding season for the league. They’ve got a firm grasp on 12th so this isn’t a playoff year for them, but that’s mostly because they haven’t been in any high scoring matches this year. In fact their top score was 350 with the snitch last bloc. Their offense struggles a bit too much with putting big points on the board for this ranking system I’m afraid. So on paper they are deceptively bad. Really, their season numbers look average to bad across the board and if we hadn’t played with them earlier and if you don’t look at the matches on an individual basis, it’s easy to believe that.

Wigtown Notes

Chasers: Better than they are at first glance frankly. Have suffered from some big injuries that seem to have thrown them off, and haven’t really been able to put together the points they need to push themselves up. The chasers alone though have held their own against some big teams and even been ahead before they lost the match on the snitch. You can tell from the fact that none of their matches have seen huge point differences (160 points is the highest final point difference of their season and that was with losing the snitch). Parkin is their big scorer and Maddox their main defense and support type, so hold off whichever of them you can.

Beaters: They had a promising beater in Okeke but alas too promising as Portree poached her a few blocs ago. The remaining ones are respectable but so far haven’t been anything to write home about.

Keeper: Another case of better than she seems on paper. She was knocked out early in one match and her stats have suffered since. Other than that match, for all but one other match she’s been a solid 80-90% keeper.

Seeker: Alright. Blythe suffers from poor timing, as they’ve lost a few matches within their grasp from that snitch. Although she oddly enough has had more success against seekers that were better than her in skill (Mather and Lynch most recently). She’s capable of coming through for them just hasn’t been consistent at all about it.

Lineup:

Chasers: Jason, Roger, Angus
Beaters: Kal and Georgi
Keeper: Ada
Seeker: Kenna

As for the team sporting pink this match:

It should be a surprise to none of you that I’m fully for it.

But this is not something mandatory or enforced, that would ruin the good spirit behind it. I do want to say though that if you are hesitant for any reason, that I hope you consider doing this for this match. At the very least in personal support of those in our Magpie family involved in this wave of pink that’s sweeping the League.

If you want to talk to any of the staff about it still, our doors are open. And if you have concerns about the PR side of things: there’s Alex.

Dani has ordered boots with pink, and there should be a stack of rosettes too. If you’re interested they should be somewhere by her office (or ask her) and will be around on match day in the locker room too.

Jason, I believe Mick and Dani may have something for you soon.

[Gabi]

Between Lorna's birthday just now and Florrie's coming up, I have never seen so much glitter everywhere. It's almost resistant to magic.

Is the night before the match still the big Pão de Queijo making night?

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The Pride of Portree (7-1-1 0.778) versus Caerphilly Catapults (6-4-0 0.600)
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Play Started:2000-03-09 at Rannoch Moor
Snitch caught in : 1 hours, 35 minutes
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The Pride of Portree : 430
Caerphilly Catapults : 50
Congratulations, The Pride of Portree
( It's always a sad day when they let us out of the stadium before happy hour... )

Who: Jason King & Alex Winters
What: Alex Gets the Lay of the (Pink) Land
When: 2 March 2000 (after training)
Where: Northern Vaults, Montrose
Warnings: Pink Politics

( The war is over. If we want to stop repeating the same mistakes, now is the time to do so. )

Does anyone have a solid contact inside the Department of Magical Transportation?

[WARD to MONTROSE ALL]

My family has expressed interest in coming out to the Wigtown match on Sunday. I believe some of you may have met them at the Solstice Sprint. They have a limited working knowledge of the sport, but want to come see me play to support me. Especially as they are not able to join me in Sweden.

My father is an engineer and will bore anyone and everyone with maths and physics questions about quidditch. It also my niece’s first birthday. She is adorable and may steal your birthday thunder, Florrie. I am sorry.

[//WARD to MONTROSE ALL]

[WARD to AUGUSTUS PYE]

Pye, I had an interesting meeting the other day with Fraser Macmillan. I had asked if the Macmillan Foundation would be willing to support a Mental Health Practice at the Montrose Free Clinic, specializing in War Trauma. There is a lack of training programs and specialists to treat the issues are facing as a community and I think this could be a solid solution.

I know you deal in the other kind of trauma, but can you think of anyone who might be interested to sit on a committee to make this happen or even serve as director?

This is just in the idea phase right now, but there is momentum. I want to capitalize.

[//WARD to AUGUSTUS PYE]

[WARD to MONTE & JUSTIN]

I met with Fraser Macmillan on behalf of Montrose ownership and the Macmillan Foundation. Uplift is going to be entering into a partnership with them, hopefully to start a mental health practice at the Montrose Free Clinic. I think we can all agree that this is something we need.

I have also asked that someone either among ownership or BIQL publicly come out against what happened with Flint.

If you feel comfortable, I would appreciate if you accepted the invitation. I think it could give a good amount of weight to our movement.

[//WARD to MONTE & JUSTIN]

[WARD to DUNBAR]

I have been having some interesting conversations. What do you think QUABBLE can do to address hostile work environments in the league? Specifically with bullying among players. The Flint incident is not an isolated event, but surely there needs to be policy in place. Thoughts? Anything in the works?

[//WARD to DUNBAR]

Who: Fraser Macmillan and Jason King
What: Ownership and the Uplift Movement
When: Monday, March 5, 2000, after practice
Where: Montrose Clubhouse
Warnings: We didn't even say 'Flint'.

( We can get the Minister on board, I think. 'Making Britons Better', we can say. He likes hearing his own ideas. )

Recovery is going good! I'm trying to get back to some kind of exercise routine. Champ is not a helpful workout partner unless it involves running.

Spell-o-Taped in

©tessisamess

Who: Lex Yaxley Savage & Jason King
What: A gesture, a conversation (argument?), and some uneasy resolution
When: Monday, 5 March before Montrose practice
Where: Montrose practise pitch
Warnings: Language, Feels

Note: If any Montrose player wants to find Lex drowning herself crying in the showers after this, feel free to let me know. She will probably be a little late to practice (despite showing up early to the pitch), but she will be wearing pink.


( Don’t just throw money at something you think you’re supposed to support. )

My first gossip article. Now I know how Harry Potter felt at fourteen. The article was just about as truthful as one by Rita Skeeter as well. Congratulations.

First, lets set the record straight:

I dislike boats immensely. I get sea sick. I also dislike horses, but that’s a story for another time.

The Mediterranean was on the shortlist, but not anymore.

I have invited Monte over and he has met my muggle parents. There is no shame here. Also, for the record, outing an idividual without their knowledge or consent is just bad form.

You never reached out to myself or, to my knowledge, Monte. Do not go claiming things you cannot back up.

A bitter ex-girlfriend of a good friend is not a close insider.

The Muggleborn Pink Movement may have put Monte and I in contact initially, but it deserves much more than an afterthought in a poorly researched article. You also forgot several key individuals: Isla Cameron, Dawn Withey, Gregor McGregor, to name just a few. There mare many more of us now, more than I can name and I am glad. That means our ideas are spreading and we are more than just a footnote.

Next time, if there is a next time, I suggest reaching out. You’d get a better story.

Tags: ! journal, hamish roberts, jason king, justin finch-fletchley, maggie macdougal, monte cameron

( Owl to Jason King )

( Owl to Peggy Urquhart )

( Express international owl to Nikolay Draganov and Lyudmila Hristova, Malkograd, Bulgaria )

ohshitohshitohshitohshit

A POX ON CIRCE'S HOUSE.

[Justin]

A yacht?

Really?

And where did that picture come from?

And why wasn't I there too?



_{(Posted after this magazine article is published, and he starts getting floo mail/owls.)}

Who: Jason King & Dawn Withey
What: Anger management.
When: 3 March 2000, after the Wasps match
Where: Somewhere away from people
Warnings: Drinking. Swearing. Breaking inanimate objects. Fire. Mentions of discrimination, Azkaban.

( I need another drink. )

Who: Jason King & Maddie Savage
What: Reconnecting and coordinating charity endeavours for the children.
When: Last Wednesday, after training (aka before the Kenmare match)
Where: Cafe in Montrose
Warnings: None.

( I can't say that I've met with opposition to it, but certainly roadblocks. )