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... )

[Ainsley]

I didn’t see you at the match.
So naturally, I worried
Are you alright, love? Do you need anything?

[Montrose +]
One last regular season game, two Neeps, and the playoffs to go.

Anyone else feeling psyched about this?

I know I haven't been with you guys for very long, but it's always great to be a part of a winning team!

( [Roger] )

( [Rafa] )

Who: Roger Davies, Alex Winters
What: A Strictly Business Dinner (No, Really …Promise)
When: 25 March 2000, Evening
Where: The Gate, Restaurant in Muggle London.
Warnings: Questionable Life Professional Choices (and language...and innuendo…)

( In his mind’s eye, he could see his higher reasoning packing its bags and marching out of his mind in a furious huff. )

Is there any way to stop owls finding you? Or get them redirected to someone else?

I don't quite know what to do with all these threesome invitations.

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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... )

Who: Ainsley Galbraith, Roger Davies
What: St David’s Day Drinking and Fantastic Choices
When: 1 March 2000, Evening
Where: Roger’s Place (Kilmarnock)
Warnings: Whinging About Boys

( I did bring him home to unwrap after the party, yes. )

Somebody wants to go home.

( spellotaped in )

[Ainsley]
1. How are you doing?
2. When you baked, did you rearrange my kitchen cupboards?
3. Have you seen Alex now? He was at the book launch.

What: Just a few wizards taking in a football match (not a shenanigan to be found!)
When: 15 March 2000, Evening
Where: Celtic Park, Glasgow
Warnings: Football Shenanigans (drinking, language, a million questions, friend wrangling, Statute toe-ing)




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Celtic (21-9-6) versus Kilmarnock (8-15-35)
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Play Started: 2000-03-15 19:45 at Celtic Park, Glasgow
Attendance : 55,194
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Celtic : 4
Kilmarnock : 2
Congratulations, Celtic
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( Only 90 minutes? And they never fly? )


(OOC: feel free to tag yourself!)

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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... )

[Angus]
Would you like some French lessons?

I think Léonie plans to stay in touch.

[Dani]
Do you need anything from me regarding the boots?

Two very important things on my personal agenda today:

First

Congratulations to Desmond Parkin. I'll be following the new office with interest, and I know my da is looking forward to the opportunity to work with you.

Second

(And substantially less important to the future and stability of Scotland, I might add.)

To whomever decided it would be a brilliant plan to charm my shower to spray seemingly benign and normal water that proceeded to turn my whole body green:

I guess this was supposed to upset me. I was a little surprised to see my reflection, particularly since I was getting ready to head into practice. However, luckily for me, I happen to know someone whose particular specialty is reversing effects just like this and much worse. He's just usually the one who caused them, too. (Friendship-obligated plug: Visit Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley!) It's too bad that you apparently know me well to be able to get into my flat, but not well enough to know that. No worries. The wards have been changed now.

Also, if you were paying attention to the news you would know:

I would have preferred Pink.

[Percy]

I'm pretty sure I made George's day. He laughed for a full ten minutes before he'd help me. I haven't seen him laugh like that in

[Ernie]

One guess who I suspect is behind this particularly clever bit of prankery.

Any insight on your own situation since Valentine's Day? It was good to see you at the match last week, but we still need to grab a drink sometime when we're not half-exhausted from the long match.

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

( Not an IC cut. )


Pink clothing felt like cheating since I wear it all the time, so I came up with something new!

[Montrose+]

Alright team this is a big month for us. We're nearing the end of the regular season and the first Neep on the 31st.

Since at this point in this season, with only 3 blocs left, we have a very solid grasp on a good playoff seed, I’m going to turn our attention to starting strong with the Neep. We are not going easy on the regular season teams, but we are going to try and save some of our strength for hitting Portree hard right off the bat.

Which means the lineups for this month are subject to change and up in the air but I will tell you ahead of time some of my plans for them so a few of you are prepared. Please note these are tentative.

Tentative line up notes:

Chasers: I don Wigtown will be Jason, Roger, and Angus. Maddock, listen to Florrie and heal well. We still have a lot ahead we need you for. Unfortunately nothing much to give you lot right now other than the Wigtown lineup, it’s all up in the air.

Beaters: Lex and Georgi, you’re on Neep. But Kal, I’m playing you for both Wigtown and the Kestrels. You’re more than ready for both. Who's playing which match with you is still to be determined but one for each either way.

Keepers: Micah is leading us into the Neep so Ada you’ll be getting one of the two regular season matches. I’ll get back to you on which.

Seekers: Lennox, normally I’d rest you for the match the week before the Neep, you’re going to be absolutely vital there, but that match is against the Kestrels. And Lynch is the only one experienced and levelheaded enough to give you any kind of a challenge. So that’s not one I can rest you on, unfortunately we’ll need you to play both those matches. So Kenna, I’m giving you Wigtown. We’ll talk about their seekers in detail later.

[Montrose Staff]

Regarding having a pink team at the match:

I’m going to say again, it’s not mandatory, I want people to do it in the spirit of support and solidarity not because it’s mandated.

But I want to support this how we can. Roger had a mention of pink boots in Jason’s entry, that and rosettes might not be a bad idea? Opinions? Whatever we do will need to be a rush order though.

And Jason wants the magpie on his robes to be a neon pink, I’ve told him I’m very happy for him to have that screw any fines. But seeing as he won’t have time to fiddle around with designs...Mick? Should be a fun project for a change. Take the practice uniforms and experiment so that Jason has options to choose from.

[PRIVATE]

To Do list:

• Follow up with Florrie - Maddock for the Kestrels match?
  
• Speaking of Florrie: bday gift + dinner
  
• Dinner at mum’s this week
  
• Work out tentative lineups for the next 3 matches (Wigtown/Kestrels/Neep)
  
• Line up considerations:
  
  • Maddock recovery time (out for Wigtown, ?Kestrels but if so then iffy on playing him for Neep)
    
  • Jason’s Broom Race
    
  • Need for starter rest
    
  • Captain or ViceCap needs to be in play for each match
    
  • Kestrels > Wigtown, unfortunate timing though
    
  • Neep lineup needs to be saved up where possible, but balanced with what’s reasonable to put reserves on
    
  • Lennox vs. Lynch needs to stay
    
  • Georgi/Lex: Which on wigtown, which on kestrels
    
  • Ada - Wigtown or Kestrels
    
  • Chasers - who the hell knows right now
  
  
• Buckle down on Portree research
  
  • Roberts era Portree (focus on the prime years)
    
  • Old Ballycastle - Pepper (+possibly Okeke)
    
  • Dig up Wigtown matches - Okeke
    
  • Galbraith in case (no way they don’t play McCormack) - Cannons (this will be painful to go through) + Wanderers if there’s time
    
  • Listen to Parkinson recordings Gregor dug up - their giant hasn’t completely found his spot in the BIL style of play just yet, there’s more that can come from him
  
  
• Celtics for Kai’s potential debut on the 15th
  
• Attend Portree vs. Cats
  
• Consider updating Potential Future Players list for offseason wants/needs
  
  • Revisit Georgi’s contract pending Peppard’s progress
  
  
• Ideally keep the top seed for the postseason run (fuck the Bats)
  
• Follow up on pink additions for the match (for players/staff)
  
• Find some extra pink to wear or charm something pink for self

Thursday, 15 March 2000, Celtic v Kilmarnock at Celtic Park in Glasgow- who's in?

if I can get a good count, I can see about group ticket sales. We can bring food and make a day of it. Please let me know by 8 March.

If you can see this, you're invited! ....and, since it's unwarded- You're Invited!

my socks of the month have chimeras on them and i hope my pants don't catch on fire.

TERRY BOOT:

guess what i bought at lunch.

( Memo from Montrose Magpies Public Relations )

(Please feel free to use this post as an IC/OOC, or we can treat it like a journal if your staff member/team player prefers the written medium.)