By Michael Colvin
Quidditch: a game made in the fantasy world of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling has been brought to life here in Edmonton. The Edmonton Aurors Quidditch Club is represented by Pearse McKinney, a current NAIT student.
The quidditch season runs from September to April. McKinney and his hard-working team won the regional championships back in November, which featured all the western Canadian teams. Travelling to Hamilton for Nationals the last weekend of March, the team placed sixth in all of Canada.
“The team participates in two levels of play: competitive, which is against teams across Canada and the US,” McKinney explained. “We also play in a development league which has teams across Alberta.”
Remember watching Harry Potter chase the golden snitch, dodging and fending off the bludgers – all while his teammates battled to put the quaffel through the hoops of the opposing team, racing on their brooms around through the sky trying to claim victory?
Other than flying, the live-action version is much the same. There are seven players on each team: one seeker, one keeper, two beaters and three chasers. To get as close as they can to the real sport, players must mount on a broom and use one hand to carry their broom and the other to perform their tasks.
The chasers are there to chase the quaffel and try to score once they have it. The beaters are there to try to stop the chasers from getting the quaffel by throwing the bludgers at them. If a player is hit by a bludger, they must stop all actions, dismount their broom and go back to their own hoops and touch them to get back into the game. The keeper is there to defend the hoops at all cost.
Lastly, the seeker is there for one purpose: to catch the golden snitch. The snitch in this version is a tennis ball in a long golden sock attached to the snitch runner. The seekers will jump into action once the snitch runner comes onto the field, then chase and capture the golden snitch to claim victory for their team.
To find out more about The Edmonton Aurors Quidditch Club, you can check out their website at edmontonquidditch.com.
Photo courtesy: Edmonton Aurors Quidditch Club
