There are fans. And then, there are Harry Potter fans. The legendary dedication of Harry Potter fans is something that has made its way into popular culture: stories of thousands standing outside bookstores at midnight, heated debates about characters and theories about the plot, every movie release being treated as a huge festival of sorts. It is this dedication that has given the Harry Potter fandom its many video games, thousands of fan fiction, recently a Harry Potter Theme Park and more importantly, their own real sport.
Yes indeed. I've not heard of any other fictional game being adapted and played in real life, but Quidditch is a real sport, hugely popular in Colleges especially in the U.S. But how exactly can muggles play a game where players fly on broomsticks and try capturing a flying golden snitch? That's where Alexander Manshel comes in. The first 'Quidditch Commissioner', Manshel adapted the rules for Quidditch from the books in 2005, making them more Muggle-friendly.
What began as an inter-mural league at Middlebury College became an inter-collegiate event organised first by the Inter-collegiate Quidditch Association founded by Alex Benepe in 2007, which is now the International Quidditch Association (IQA). Muggle Quidditch is growing in its international stature, boasting of teams from as many countries as the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India (One is being formed in New College, Chennai apparently. Did you know?), South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
The rules of the game are briefly thus: there are seven players per team and the quaffle is actually a volleyball. There is no flying golden snitch; instead, the snitch is a player, a fast runner with a tennis ball in a sock that has to be caught by the seeker of either team. The hoops are present for the quaffle to be thrown into, while beaters hit players of the opposing team with a dodgeball that serves as a bludger. And yes, players run around with a broomstick. The IQA has a detailed Quidditch rulebook which talks of everything from referees to overtime to fouls and misconduct.
If you thought this was a sport that just a couple of Harry Potter nerds amused themselves with, you'd be mistaken. The two-day Quidditch World Cup 2010 in New York featured 757 athletes from 46 teams, cheered eagerly by 20000 spectators and covered by 40 media outlets.
Watching one of the videos (this is one of the good ones) of a Muggle Quidditch game in progress, you might chuckle about the craziness of it all or snort about the bizarre image of people running around with broomsticks. But this apparently is no joke of a game. Muggle Quidditch is pretty serious and like its wizarding counterpart, comes with its own set of gruelling injuries.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team flies to glory
If sport is all about passion, excitement and fun that brings people together, Muggle Quidditch is a perfect endorsement of sport. To sum it up, all I can say is: Oliver Wood would have definitely approved.
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