Quidditch
(Use the news articles for information.)
We’ve finally found an off-season use for broomball brooms. Quidditch match over midterm break. An earth-bound quidditch, adapted for us muggles, who, sadly, don’t have flying brooms. Adapted rules.
Invented by Wellesley. Use the Wikipedia information here. Expanded, and now there are a few informal leagues around.
Instead of brooms, you use broomball sticks. Have to run around with them between your legs like a hobby horse – consequently, can only use one hand for holding the ball. Hula hoops for the goals. Quaffles and bludgers are each different kinds of balls, and the snitch – he’s a guy from the track team named Peter.
(quote here would be good)
He’s dressed in yellow, and has a sockball tucked into his waistband. The Seeker has to chase him down and grab the sockball.
Held behind Rec Center. A bunch of teams come wearing color-coded shirts. (Jerseys also to distinguish, and colored tape for team positions.) Team names like Drunken Dementors and ____ Snatchers. For the first round, they troop out to the field (____ Snatchers vs. a pick-up team) and do a team cheer. Referee goes over the rules. Brooms on the ground, they must all close their eyes. Peter, the Snitch, takes off. This way they don’t know which way he went. Once he’s disappeared over the horizon, play begins.
It’s a bit like soccer, a bit like Rotblatt, and a bit like Calvinball. Everybody’s made incredibly awkward because of the brooms. Passing the quaffle to each other, which frequently drops. Since they’re supposed to be hit by a bat, you can’t hold onto a bludger. Pick it up and throw it at somebody. If hit, you must drop the ball (if you had it) and circle the other team’s goalposts before resuming play. There’s a back-and-forth flow of the quaffle (like soccer), still no sign of the snitch.
Then he appears, on the edge of the Arb. At first the Seekers don’t notice. Then they take off. This part of the game has no regard for out-of-bounds, of course, so it’s a mad chase across the field and down into the Rec Center parking lot. A scuffle behind some bushes, then _____ Snatcher comes running back, sockball held up in victory! “It was a bit anticlimactic,” says the snitch afterwards. His sockball wasn’t attached properly, so it fell out when he made a sharp turn.
Not a problem with the winning team, though, who take home with 160-10 points. Something conclusionary.