Last weekend’s Inaugural Cairns Classic Quidditch Tournament saw the Melbourne Manticores take out the top prize narrowly defeating Second placing Cairns City Champions and Third placing James Cook University. Over the course of seven hours of intense competition in near 30 degree heat, The Manticores fought through the day to defeat both the local teams on their home fields defeating City in a tight 110 – 100* match in the day’s second game and cleaning up James Cook University in a 120* - 10 game positioning them in First Place at the end of pool play before taking out City again in the Finals with a perfectly timed Snitch Snatch bringing the final score to Manticores 110* - City 60. The most surprising team of the day was Cairns’ own Community team, The Cairns City Champions, who proved once and for all that they are a team of serious contenders who mean business! Their day started with the opening game against local rivals James Cook University, thanks to the excellent Chasing skills of first time players Cedric Rostenne and Sarah Ryland who combined with the Champions Mercenary Chaser Jesús “The Mexican Lighting Bolt” Rosas scored a grand total of 5 goals within the 15 minutes of game time with Keeper Sharon Jan only conceding 2 goals to James Cook’s offensive Chaser Combination of, Cooper Gabriel, Robert Thompson and Zach Bickhoff resulting in a 80*- 20 Victory to Cairns City The Champions, already hot and exhausted from the first game of the day, took to the field again only half an hour later to face off against the visiting Melbourne Manticores, an impressive match that saw JCU’s Keeper Copper Gabriel take the field for the Champions as a substitute for City’s injured chaser Cedric Rostenne, The Champions fought right from the start taking on the Manticores who’s starting line-up included no fewer than six of the Bronze Medal winning Australian Olympic Quidditch Team, despite the best efforts of the Rosas, Ryland, Gabriel combination, the deadly combination of Liz Daniels and James Williams, Melbourne’s Beaters, working fluidly with Chasers, Kat Young, Emily Davies, Katherine Hunter and Keeper Michael Butera, lead to a Manticores lead of 110 to 70 in the 20th minute of play with City’s Captain and Seeker, Matthew Morris, deciding to end the game on his own terms by snatching the snitch leading to a Manticores 10 point victory with a final score of 110* - 100. After a lengthy break to avoid the hottest part of the day, James Cook University took to the fields in their AQA Ranked match against the Manticores. Both teams started the game in fine form with James Cook taking out first points with a goal from James Cook’s Keeper Nicholas Evans, sadly those would be the last points scored by JCU in the match with the following sixteen minutes of play only describable as a goal-fest for the Manticores, with the quaffle passing JCU’s hoops a grand total of nine times finally ending with the Snitch going to the Manticores’ Katherine Hunter leaving the Manticores with a guaranteed 1st or 2nd place as pool play rounded up for the day. The finals started with an Elimination Final rematch between James Cook and Cairns City to decide 3rd place, James Cook started the match with reserve Chaser Christopher Ryland taking the place of the injured Zach Bickhoff and with Melbourne’s Chaser Sam Washington joining the ranks of JCU to replace the injured Brodie Smart who took a shoulder to the jaw in an accidental collision with Washington in the previous match. Cairns City also saw Melbourne’s James Williams substitute into the Champions as a replacement for Rostenne who was out for the remainder of the day having aggravated a pre-existing injury during the first match. The match became do or die for JCU who faced the prospect of losing their third consecutive match on their home pitch, JCU felt the heat with the combination of City’s new offensive Chaser combination of Rosas, Williams and Snider scoring a total of ninety points in just eighteen minutes of play while JCU’s Gabriel, Washington, Ryland combination only scoring fifty points from quaffle play with Furzeman’s ill-timed snitch catch sealing James Cook’s fate in an 80* to 90 defeat. After a long and tiring day with all players doubling as match officials in the matches they weren’t playing, and braving the heat in the sun, the time had finally come for the Final match of the 2012 Cairns Classic Quidditch Tournament. As the sun set, City was unsure if they could field a team for the final match having lost two players to injury through the day, finally taking the field with Furzeman, Ryland and Gabriel replacing Rostenne, Simpson and Snider in the starting line-up. The Finals match saw Morris return to his preferred position as Chaser while Furzeman took to the field as Seeker, a foul in the second minute to Melbourne’s seeker Williams saw the first usage of the penalty box for the day, Williams being yellow carded for illegal contact with the Snitch whilst the seeker floor was in effect (i.e.: a false snatch) this distraction lead to a City goal off the hands of Rosas this was answered by three goals to Melbourne, gameplay was shortly stopped when the Mexican Lighting Bolt suddenly came down with a stitch, the stop lasted for ten minutes as Rosas recovered and Simpson substituted in for Jan before play continued. Play resumed the Seekers and Snitch became visible at the edge of the grounds with both JCU and Melbourne’s seekers unsure whether or not a snatch was prudent, instead shepherding the snitch back towards the pitch, Quaffle play intensified with City returning Melbourne’s three goals and keeping pace with the southerners goal for goal with the pre snitch score standing at 60 – 70 with goals to Morris, Rosas, Gabriel and Jan for City and Hacket, Butera and Hunter for Melbourne, the day ended in a matter of seconds with City’s Furzeman missing the snatch leaving Manticores’ Williams to take the Snitch for a 110* - 60 victory. The day ended with the Manticores and City all in a circle of friendship celebrating their successes and a simple awards ceremony with the presentation of the trophies to captains Shantelle Furzeman (JCU), Matthew Morris and Jessica Simpson (Cairns City), and Katherine Hunter (Manticores), Captains speeches were cut short when Butera and Thompson decided to empty the teams iced water over the Manticore’s Captain. A great weekend was had by all involved and plans are already underway for Cairns Classic II in 2013 with pre-registrations and expressions of interest already flowing from as far as Canada and the United States, so keep the First weekend of October 2013 free because Cairns is the place every Quidditch player will want to be! Special thanks must be given to the James Cook University Students Association and Sports and Recreation Department for waiving booking fees for the day, As well as to Jordan Wymarra, a local comedian for providing amusing commentary throughout the final matches of the day and to Jesús Rosas our MVP for the Tournament who came to us all the way from Tijuana, Mexico to show the locals how it’s done. Well done to all. END OF DAY RESULTS: CAIRNS CLASSIC QUIDDITCH TOURNAMENT – JCU OVAL, CAIRNS, QLD PLAYED WON LOST FOR AGAINST SNITCH 1ST Manticores 3 3 0 340 170 2 2ND Champions 4 2 2 320 320 3 3RD James Cook 3 0 3 110 280 1

The James Cook University Quidditch team has taken home it's first prize, a handmade third place trophy from the Inaugural Cairns Classic Quidditch Tournament, losing out to First Placing Melbourne Muggles and Second placing Cairns City Champions, The Billywigs fought long and hard throughout the day!