Conceived by J.K. Rowling as a sport for young wizards and witches in her Harry Potter series of books, the magical sport of quidditch has been adapted for normal people like you and me.
“It was developed from Harry Potter books, where they fly around on brooms, so now you have to run around with a broom between your legs,” says Robert Barringer, an assistant coach of the Keele University quidditch team. He is also the founder of Quidditch UK, which aims to be an umbrella body for the game in the UK.
The game has more than one ball — the quaffle, the bladger and the snitch. “At the end of the day, a bunch of people with broomsticks between their legs chase a man who has a sock hanging out from the back of his shorts,” says Barringer.
Quidditch was first adapted for muggles by American student Xander Manshel and his fellow student in Vermont’s Liberal Arts College. The first game was played there in October 2005. The duo also formed the International Quidditch Association, which forms the rules, sets standards for the game and organises the world cup annually. Till now, five world cups have been held in the United States, with the last one organised in the New York City with 93 teams and over 1,600 athletes from the US, Canada, Finland and Iceland.
Britain, however, had a slower introduction to the muggle quidditch and it was imported to the UK by university students, who studied abroad in the United States. “The game is not just limited to university teams, but it is driven forward by the college students in the UK,” says Barringer.
London, which is organising Olympic Games this summer, will also host an expo match of quidditch at that time.