Durhamstrang Takes Winter Classic

By Bill Orridge

The Winter Classic was a friendly tournament set up by Derby Union Quidditch that also involved Durhamstrang, the Loughborough Longshots and the Southampton Quidditch Club Seconds.

The full set of results and final rankings are below

Durhamstrang def. Derby 80*-10

Southampton 2 def. Loughborough 70*-40

Southampton 2 def. Derby 90*-10

Durhamstrang def. Loughborough 70*-50

Loughborough def. Derby 90*-10

Durhamstrang def. Southampton 2 110*-50

Team Name	Wins	Losses	QPD	Snitch Catches
Durhamstrang	3	0	+60	3
Southampton 2	2	1	+20	2
Loughborough	1	2	+60	1
Derby Union	0	3	-140	0

Durhamstrang

Durham started this season with a win during a closely contested Highlander tournament. After that, it travelled to the current British and European champions, the Radcliffe Chimeras, where it lost all three of its contests, but received praise for its tenacity throughout. Durham displayed a strong outfit, bolstered by skills and tactics learnt from its experiences in Oxford. At the Winter Classic, Durham fully proved that it was deserving of its place at the European Quidditch Cup later this season and I wholeheartedly believe it will go far at the British Quidditch Cup this year.

Durham got stronger and stronger as the day progressed, obviously shaking off the rust from the Christmas break. Possessing a very consistent level of physical players across the team makes it one of the most consistent performers I’ve seen in UK quidditch so far, which gave it an advantage during the tournament. Durham’s passing game was its shining quality. Whilst it started off rusty like the rest of the team, by the final game its passing was clearly the strongest in the tournament, with passes generally being both fast and accurate and off-ball players making good use of gaps in the opposing defences. In particular, it favoured a tactic involving the quaffle carrier driving out wide to draw beaters away, allowing them to play a quick pass into an often-unmarked receiver to easily slot the quaffle into the hoops.

Durham’s beating was also very strong, making good use of its beaters to shut down opposing play, with beaters often slotting into sync with each other to maintain and retain control throughout the day.

Southampton 2

Southampton are one of the strongest teams in UK quidditch at the moment, having won the majority of its games by over 100 points. With over 50 players signed up to play for the club, the club created a second team to ensure all players get a fair crack at the whip. Southampton brought a team comprised of both the first and second team players to the Winter Classic, balancing the need to test and try new players with the experienced guiding hand of veterans. Whilst some people in the community have voiced concern over the fact that first team players came to the tournament as part of the second team, I feel obligated to defend Southampton, as all participating teams were aware of the mixed squad and approved it. Also, as a friendly tournament neither reputation nor league standings were at stake.

Southampton’s initial beating and chasing game against Loughborough was very strong, utilising an offensive strategy to great effect to counteract Loughborough’s beaters and allow its own chasers free reign to drive at the hoops. Whilst this tactic remained effective against Derby, Southampton’s aggressiveness faded against Durham, allowing Durham to take control of the game more effectively. I cannot say whether this was due to tiredness or the team giving less experienced players more game time. Its chasing game favoured two main tactics: either using strong and fast chasers to drive past opponents when its beaters had distracted opposing beaters or otherwise playing passes into a troll waiting behind the hoops. Southampton’s passing game varied with the amount of first team players it had on pitch, as the more experienced players passing and movement was generally much better. When playing less experienced players, many attempts at a pass behind the hoops were too high. That said, the movement of the chasers in general cannot be faulted, as there was nearly always an player in space for a pass.

Loughborough

Those people familiar with UK quidditch might be surprised to see Loughborough come third at this event, having won both the East Midlands Cup and the L tournament by a significant margin. Loughborough entered this tournament taking a significant proportion of new players, nearly half the roster having either one game’s experience, or none whatsoever. Even considering this, Loughborough were unusually slow to feel its way into the games, and fell behind early on against both Durham and Southampton. Beating communication was shaky against Southampton, allowing it to control the game despite Loughborough’s bludger control. Tackling on the chasing front was also shaky throughout the tournament, with only a few Loughborough players putting in reliable tackles. Despite these problems, Loughborough held its opponents and lost twice on very fast snitch catches from Southampton and Durham, before going on to beat Derby.

Derby

Derby hosted this tournament after its successes at the East Midlands Cup, where its defeat of last year’s BQC runners-up Keele showed that Derby had come a long way since last year, where it often struggled to muster up a team with substitutes. However Derby came into the Winter Classic missing a number of its key players for various reasons. Despite this, Derby demonstrated the same unique team spirit that makes it always entertaining to play against.

Derby’s passing game showed signs of promise during the tournament, with a couple of good chained passes between players quickly shifting the quaffle between defensive lines. However, it was let down by its movement on this front, as the passes would quickly move to the foremost player who was often left alone to contend with opposing chasers and beaters, which scarcely worked out in Derby’s favour.

Derby employed a very defensive beating strategy, its beaters rarely came further up than its defending third when in possession of a bludger. Against Durham, this strategy fell flat as its aggressive beaters often came up to take the Derby’s out of commission, allowing Durham to quickly pass its way around the rest of the Derby defence. However, this strategy held up surprisingly well against Southampton 2, whose preference for passes to trolls meant Derby were able to make a slew of last ditch beats to prevent a goal. However, upon losing control Derby was subject to having to choose between troll and quaffle carrier, and often lost out on the goal.