The Daily Prophet - Sports Section
Date: Tuesday, 9 January 2001
Time: Morning Edition
Characters Involved: The Daily Prophet
Rating: G
Duelling Ban to be Repealed
Official Opening of the New Season on January 12th
By Janice Street-Porter (OOC: alex)
At last! Some good news for duelling aficionados. After five years of a cloak-and-dagger league it is understood that the Ministry of Magic, in a surprising U-turn, is planning to repeal the ban on competitive duelling.
It was in 1995 when eleven nations signed the International Ban on Competitive Duelling and during the intervening time only Switzerland and Chile have successfully upheld the ban-neither of them being very well known as duelling nations, it must be remembered. During the recent meeting of the International Association for Safety in Magical Sports (IASMS), which was held to review the ban situation, most of the member states, including France, Germany, Spain, and the Untied States apparently applied pressure on the British representative to repeal the ban and allow the underground British Duelling League teams eligible to compete in the upcoming European Champions' League to do so. The competition opens on January 23 rd and although there are no official statistics available, a representative from the league said that, based on their performance last season, the teams most likely to be invited to attend would be the Wimbourne Wraithes and the London Leeches, with several other teams also being possibilities.
A Ministry spokesperson from the Department of International Magical Co-operation said, "We have objected to duelling competitively purely on the basis of the safety of the competitors. However, we have been assured by the IASMS that the safety precautions being made are more than adequate, and so we withdraw our objections. After all, it's their own stupid heads they're going to break, not ours."
As Good As It Was?
What kind of league will be emerging from the shadows though? Duelling, a sport of gentlemen wizards for centuries has lost its gilded sheen for many a long-term fan.
Perhaps the most controversial event of the last few years is the acquisition this past winter of the London Leeches by Montague Morsus, the owner of the well-respected Arcadia Gallery, and a man who clearly has great plans for the team. One of the oldest in the League, the Leeches have nevertheless allegedly been renamed by him the Bloody Barons and the old team members will find that one empty spot on the squad has been filled by a surprising choice.
Montague Morsus, while a respected businessman is also a Level II Registered citizen and his choice for new recruit is even more questionable, given previous fears of a Dark Arts core in the League, and the arrests of at least four members of various teams for Death Eater activities.
Peregrin Derrick, a twenty-three year old ex-Slytherin and a team-mate of Morsus' on their house Quidditch team, has in fact been seen in the newspapers in recent months-but in the gossip and society pages, where his are-they, aren't-they, will-they, won't-they relationship with wealthy heiress (and Witch Weekly's Number One Bachelorette 2000) Pansy Parkinson has stacked up its fair share of column inches. Has this unknown taken one of the most eligible young ladies in Britain off the market? Circumstances are suggestive but one suspects if any troths have been made, Miss Parkinson's father, the fearsome Mr Adolphus Parkinson, will have something to say about his prospective son-in-law's species. Surely there are guidelines prohibiting a werewolf from competing?
Aside from the obvious Dark Arts implications-and Mr Derrick is a sometime resident at the house of a certain Mr Severus Snape, along with five other specimens of the species-there are the implications of the supernatural strength and healing capabilities of werewolves. A representative of the Bulgarian league said he was "dismayed and alarmed" that such an admission had been allowed and, should the London Leeches end up competing in the Champions' League, he was certain there would be an international outcry.
Morsus, of course, was quick to defend his new player.
"Interesting that the same egalitarian community that cried for equality of all intelligent species on earth is now crying for quite the opposite of it," he said. "Are lycans not human and should they be isolated and put into reservoirs now? I admit I had been rather prejudiced against them in the past, but I had reconsidered my stance-and now what do I see? An amusing situation."
Derrick refused to comment on the matter, but Morsus assures that Derrick's potential physical advantages are nothing to worry about.
"Duelling is not about supernatural abilities, it is about mental quickness and wit, intelligence and magical abilities. All of these are equally available to any Wizard or Witch and depend solely on their ability to use these skills. Please, do not tell me that just because Derrick can run faster or scare your children when he is not in the mood-he is going to win the Champion's League. If such is true-then Duelling is not worth a Knut."
But it seems Derrick's species status is not the only issue. At the Clubhouse of the London Leeches Lovers, the supporters association for the team which itself dates back at least five hundred years, there was outspoken anger at the way the team was headed. Alfred Beddingbroke-Taylor, 110, is one of the oldest members of the club and he has been watching the developments in a formally upright London team he has been supporting since before he could talk.
"This would never have happened under the Mackleby family," he said sadly, referring to the former owners who, until last year, had run the club since the early nineteenth century. "Duelling has always been a gentleman's sport, the sport of kings, not some gutter cur and a jumped-up businessman. They think they know the sport because they've fought a war? Duelling takes finesse, strategy, timing. Any fool can pick up his wand and blast out curses-it takes a professional to duel. You show me how many real matches this Derrick has fought and won," he added emphatically. "None. And nor will he!"
Indeed, not withstanding his controversiality, Derrick is untried and untested, having never fought a professional match in his life. Such a signing for a club of standing like the Leeches is unheard of, and even with the bringing-on-board of Lucian Maeve, the toast of Eastern European duelling, as trainer, it is difficult to envisage the team having anything other than an appalling season.
One wonders therefore, in what state we will find our Duelling League when it finally emerges from the dark. Today, despite the lifted ban, the future of reputable duelling in this country looks bleak.