![]() Each squad has 21 players, with seven at a time on the field. Jessica Cornelius / Quidditch Premier LeagueĮffectively, quidditch is three mini-games running concurrently – rugby, dodgeball, and the snitch game. The Portland Augureys and five other teams competed at the Portland Quidditch Tournament in Hillsboro in December 2015, the area’s first officially recognized quidditch competition. Quidditch became a formal organization, today standardizing rules for the nearly 200 recognized teams nationwide. ”It was students at Middlebury College in Vermont who first brought the game to life in 2005. ![]() “It’s just the handicap that adds the challenge to the sport. “But the broom is no more unusual than how you can’t move with the netball or how you can only catch the ball with one hand in water polo,” she argues. Obviously humans can’t fly, but the general effect is replicated by the players hobby-horsing around on brooms, which are actually lengths of PVC piping –bristles having long ago been deemed impractical for a full-contact sport. Rowling’s books, Harry Potter and his magical muckers levitate around on broomsticks. “Everybody always wants to know about the brooms,” says Kim Spijkers-Shaw, 20, who also plays for the Leeds Griffins and is supporting those trying out from the sidelines. As he grabs his gumshield and smears stripes of mud over his cheeks, Joe Croucher – vice captain of the Leeds Griffins, one of around 50 university and community teams operating in the UK – jokes: “When the war-paint comes out, bodies will fall!” I’m about to experience quidditch in action – (Hog)warts-and-all. It’s a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon in a boggy park near the University of Leeds when I’m given a crash course in the wizard sport. Like 20 or so other muggles here today, I’m at the tryouts for the Yorkshire Roses, one of 10 regional teams that compete in the Quidditch Premier League, which was set up in the UK in 2016, running from May to August. Understandable, as quidditch – the real-life version of the fictional sport from Harry Potter – is a surreal sight. I have a broom handle between my legs, which I’m struggling not to drop while dashing around a pitch, trying to avoid being struck by a dodgeball.
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