Yea, you read right.
If you, like me, are one of the readers of the massively famous Harry Potter series, then you are in for a treat. Quidditch is indeed, now a real sport.
Before you start getting excited, you should first know that there is no magic involved – the game has been (obviously) modified to suit our non-wizard disadvantages. The game was first ‘invented’ in the real world in 2005, by Xander Manshel, a student of Middlebury College, in Vermont, USA. In less than five years, the mythical sport has gained so much popularity that it boasts of an administrative association, it’s own rules, a World Cup and more than 200 colleges as participants.
The Intercollegiate Quidditch Association was formed in 2007 to form a governing body for this sport. Before this form of the game, many people had already come up with variations of J.K.Rowling’s literary creation, with the game essentially consisting of a mixture of volleyball, handball and basketball rules. To simulate broomsticks, players used bicycles, unicycles, and sometimes even motorcycles.
Intercollege Quidditch Association
The ‘Quaffle’ was a football/volleyball, and the ‘Bludgers’ were softer balls that the ‘Beaters’ tried to knock down the other teams players. Sometimes, even tennis racquets and balls were used as Bludgers, but due to lesser accuracy, were replaced by other balls.
However, ever since the IQA has taken over the administration of the sport, (and Xander now refers to himself as Commissioner Manshel), the rules have been tweaked so as to make the sport look more like it’s fictional origin. Players wear capes, and handle a broomstick in between their legs, which makes it more difficult to run and handle the Quaffle. Beaters can aim at the other players with large rubber balls and try to knock the Quaffle away from the Chasers. Every team has a Keeper, to man the three hoops which form the goalposts on either end of the field.
But the more excited among you Harry Potter fans must be looking for the Seeker and the Snitch in this Muggle version of the game! So here it is: the Snitch is not exactly a ball, but a neutral player (generally a cross-country runner), dressed in gold, who has a ball hanging in a sock from his pants! The Seekers on both teams try to catch this player and try to tag the ball in the sock from his pants. In most of the games, the Seeker is allowed to enter the field only at half-time. Sometimes, he is given the authority to enter the field at any time he wants. In more ambitious versions of the game, the Snitch-holder and the Seekers can run around the entire campus where the game is being held – there is no restriction to the field! The Snitch, however, is worth 50 points, unlike the 150 in the books.
Referees have the authority to call fouls, and in some cases, even remove the offending player from the field by showing him a ‘Red Wand’ (similar to a red card in football).
More recently, the sport was in news when Bronx High School of Science lost 30-50 to Lenox High School, in New York. Though the Seeker of Bronx High jumped across a fence to catch the Snitch (and eventually caught it), he had lost his broom during the jump, and hence, the match was deemed over.
Quite an interesting sport, though, personally am not very sure if it’ll catch up to the rest of the world as well!
A quidditch Team
The IQA also organizes the World Cup every year – it is an inter-collegiate event in the USA and boasts of some prestigious names like Boston University, Harvard University and Massachusetts as well! In the 2009 Word Cup, Middlebury won the finals against Emerson, defeating them 60-10. The sport made it to the cover of Wall Street Journal and Life magazine as well. The World Cups receive a fair amount of spectators, and even some broadcasting.
