This week I
would like to talk about Quidditch. You know, this sport played in Harry Potter
novels with flying brooms. You probably don’t know it is played in real life by
real people!
Quidditch,
as a real sport, was invented in 2005 in the United States. It has a lot of
similarities with Rowling’s Quidditch (multiple balls, brooms, or the 6 rings)
but of course, it also lacks of flying brooms, which is its most showy thing.
You must
use a stick as a broom, and carry it between your legs while running. The 3
chasers must score points to the rival keeper, while dodging bludgers from the
beaters. Last, we’ve got the seeker, who must run to catch the snitch, which is
a tennis ball in a sock, carried by a neutral player.
Of course
we haven’t got only snitches: we also have 3 bludgers (dodgeballs) and a
quaffle (a volleyball). Each goal scores 10 points, and catching the snitch is
30 points (in the fictional sport, it is 150 points, so in real Quidditch,
catching the snitch doesn’t ensure you to win). When the snitch is caught, the
match is over.
It has a
lot of rules like any other sports, but I think the most interesting one is the
“Maximum four”, which means that there must not be more than 4 players
(excluding the seeker) who are identified with the same gender. This allows
people play as the gender they feel of, so it is a pioneer sport in this
aspect.
If you feel
interested, there is a complete rulebook, lots of information on the internet,
and also a lot of professional teams in Spain, even a national team. Maybe you
could be part of the first Extremadura quidditch team!
