This all feels like a bit of a moot point since python caches the compiled regex internally, how would you feel about going back to `re.match(pattern, string)`?

If that's not explicit enough, perhaps it would be worthwhile to write a generic module that does that caching for us:

cached_regex.py:
```python
_compiled_pattern_cache = LeastRecentlyUsedCache(1000)

def match(pattern, string):
    if pattern not in _compiled_pattern_cache:
        compiled_pattern = re.compile(pattern)
        _compiled_pattern_cache[pattern] = compiled_pattern
    else:
        compiled_pattern = _compiled_pattern_cache[pattern]
    return compiled_pattern.match(string)
```

but that feels over-engineered and heavyweight given that python includes this functionality in the standard library...