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Quidditch was introduced to New Zealand some time in
the seventeenth century, allegedly by a team of European
herbologists who had gone on an expedition there to
research magical plants and fungi. We are told that after a
long day’s toil collecting samples, these witches and
wizards let off steam by playing Quidditch under the
bemused gaze of the local magical community. The New
Zealand Ministry of Magic has certainly spent much time
and money preventing Muggles getting hold of Maori art
of that period which clearly depicts white wizards playing
Quidditch (these carvings and paintings are now on
display at the Ministry of Magic in Wellington).
The spread of Quidditch to Australia is believed to have
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occurred some time in the eighteenth century. Australia
may be said to be an ideal Quidditch-playing territory,
given the great expanses of uninhabited outback where
Quidditch pitches may be established.
Antipodean teams have always thrilled European
crowds with their speed and showmanship. Among the
best are the Moutohora Macaws (New Zealand), with
their famous red, yellow, and blue robes, and their
phoenix mascot Sparky. The Thundelarra Thunderers
and the Woollongong Warriors have dominated the
Australian League for the best part of a century. Their
enmity is legendary among the Australian magical
community, so much so that a popular response to an
unlikely claim or boast is “Yeah, and I think I’ll volunteer
to ref the next Thunderer–Warrior game.”
Africa
The broomstick was probably introduced to the African
continent by European wizards and witches travelling
there in search of information on alchemy and astronomy,
subjects in which African wizards have always been
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particularly skilled. Though not yet as widely played as in
Europe, Quidditch is becoming increasingly popular
throughout the African continent.
Uganda in particular is emerging as a keen Quidditch-
playing nation. Their most notable club, the Patonga
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Proudsticks, held the Montrose Magpies to a draw in
1986 to the astonishment of most of the Quidditch-
playing world. Six Proudstick players recently
represented Uganda in the Quidditch World Cup, the
highest number of fliers from a single team ever united on
a national side. Other African teams of note include the
Tchamba Charmers (Togo), masters of the reverse
pass; the Gimbi Giant-Slayers (Ethiopia), twice
winners of the All-Africa Cup; and the Sumbawanga
Sunrays (Tanzania), a highly popular team whose
formation looping has delighted crowds across the world.
North America
Quidditch reached the North American continent in the
early seventeenth century, although it was slow to take
hold there owing to the great intensity of anti-wizarding
feeling unfortunately exported from Europe at the same
time. The great caution exercised by wizard settlers, many
of whom had hoped to find less prejudice in the New
World, tended to restrict the growth of the game in its
early days.
In later times, however, Canada has given us three of the
most accomplished Quidditch teams in the world: the
Moose Jaw Meteorites, the Haileybury Hammers,
and the Stonewall Stormers. The Meteorites were
threatened with disbandment in the 1970s owing to their
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persistent practice of performing post-match victory
flights over neighbouring towns and villages while trailing
fiery sparks from their broom tails. The team now
confines this tradition to the pitch at the end of each
match and Meteorite games consequently remain a great
wizarding tourist attraction.
The United States has not produced as many world-
class Quidditch teams as other nations because the game
has had to compete with the American broom game
Quodpot. A variant of Quidditch, Quodpot was invented
by the eighteenth-century wizard Abraham Peasegood,
who had brought a Quaffle with him from the old country
and intended to recruit a Quidditch team. The story goes
that Peasegood’s Quaffle had inadvertently come into
contact with the tip of his wand in his trunk, so that when
he finally took it out and began to throw it around in a
casual manner, it exploded in his face. Peasegood, whose
sense of humour appears to have been robust, promptly
set out to recreate the effect on a series of leather balls
and soon all thought of Quidditch was forgotten as he and
his friends developed a game which centred on the
explosive properties of the newly renamed “Quod.”
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There are eleven players a side in the game of Quodpot.
They throw the Quod, or modified Quaffle, from team
member to member, attempting to get it into the “pot” at
the end of the pitch before it explodes. Any player in
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possession of the Quod when it explodes must leave the
pitch. Once the Quod is safely in the “pot” (a small
cauldron containing a solution which will prevent the
Quod exploding), the scorer’s team is awarded a point
and a new Quod is brought on to the pitch. Quodpot has
had some success as a minority sport in Europe, though
the vast majority of wizards remain faithful to Quidditch.
The rival charms of Quodpot notwithstanding,
Quidditch is gaining popularity in the United States. Two
teams have recently broken through at international level:
the Sweetwater All-Stars from Texas, who gained a
well-deserved win over the Quiberon Quafflepunchers in
1993 after a thrilling five-day match; and the Fitchburg
Finches from Massachusetts, who have now won the US
League seven times and whose Seeker, Maximus
Brankovitch III, has captained America at the last two
World Cups.
South America
Quidditch is played throughout South America, though
the game must compete with the popular Quodpot here
as in the North. Argentina and Brazil both reached the
quarter-finals of the World Cup in the last century.
Undoubtedly the most skilled Quidditch nation in South
America is Peru, which is tipped to become the first Latin
World Cup winner within ten years. Peruvian warlocks
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are believed to have had their first exposure to Quidditch
from European wizards sent by the International
Confederation to monitor the numbers of Vipertooths
(Peru’s native dragon). Quidditch has become a veritable
obsession of the wizard community there since that time,
and their most famous team, the Tarapoto Tree-
Skimmers, recently toured Europe to great acclaim.
Asia
Quidditch has never achieved great popularity in the East,
as the flying broomstick is a rarity in countries where the
carpet is still the preferred mode of travel. The Ministries
of Magic in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Iran, and Mongolia, all of whom maintain a flourishing
trade in flying carpets, regard Quidditch with some
suspicion, though the sport does have some fans among
witches and wizards on the street.
The exception to this general rule is Japan, where
Quidditch has been gaining steadily in popularity over the
last century. The most successful Japanese team, the
Toyohashi Tengu, narrowly missed a win over
Lithuania’s Gorodok Gargoyles in 1994. The Japanese
practice of ceremonially setting fire to their brooms in
case of defeat is, however, frowned upon by the
International Confederation of Wizards’ Quidditch
Committee as being a waste of good wood.
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U
Chapter Nine
The Development of the
Racing Broom
ntil the early nineteenth century, Quidditch was
-204played on day brooms of varying quality. These
brooms represented a massive advance over their
medieval forerunners; the invention of the Cushioning
Charm by Elliot Smethwyck in 1820 went a long way
towards making broomsticks more comfortable than ever
before (see Fig. F). Nevertheless, nineteenth-century
broomsticks were generally incapable of achieving high
speeds and were often difficult to control at high altitudes.
Brooms tended to be hand-produced by individual
broom-makers, and while they are admirable from the
point of view of styling and craftsmanship, their
performance rarely matched up to their handsome
appearance.
A case in point is the Oakshaft 79 (so named because
the first example was created in 1879). Crafted by the
broom-maker Elias Grimstone of Portsmouth, the
Oakshaft is a handsome broom with a very thick oaken
handle, designed for endurance flying and to withstand
high winds. The Oakshaft is now a highly prized vintage
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broom, but attempts to use it for Quidditch were never
successful. Too cumbersome to turn at high speed, the
Oakshaft never gained much popularity with those who
prized agility over safety, though it will a lwa ys be
remembered as the broom used in the first ever Atlantic
broom crossing, by Jocunda Sykes in 1935. (Before that
time, wizards preferred to take ships rather than trust
broomsticks over such distances. Apparition becomes
increasingly unreliable over very long distances, and only
highly skilled wizards are wise to attempt it across
continents.)
The Moontrimmer, which was first created by
Gladys Boothby in 1901, represented a leap forward in
broom construction, and for a while these slender, ash-
handled brooms were in great demand as Quidditch
brooms. The Moontrimmer’s principal advantage over
other brooms was its ability to achieve greater heights
than ever before (and remain controllable at such
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altitudes). Gladys Boothby was unable to produce
Moontrimmers in the quantities Quidditch players
clamoured for. The production of a new broom, the
Silver Arrow, was welcomed; this was the true
forerunner of the racing broom, achieving much higher
speeds than the Moontrimmer or Oakshaft (up to seventy
miles an hour with a tailwind), but like these it was the
work of a single wizard (Leonard Jewkes), and demand far
outstripped supply.
The breakthrough occurred in 1926, when the brothers
Bob, Bill, and Barnaby Ollerton started the Cleansweep
Broom Company. Their first model, the Cleansweep
One, was produced in numbers never seen before and
marketed as a racing broom specifically designed for
sporting use. The Cleansweep was an instant, runaway
success, cornering as no broom before it, and within a
year, every Quidditch team in the country was mounted
on Cleansweeps.
The Ollerton brothers were not left in sole possession
of the racing-broom market for long. In 1929 a second
racing-broom company was established by Randolph
Keitch and Basil Horton, both players for the Falmouth
Falcons. The Comet Trading Company’s first broom was
the Comet 140, this being the number of models that
Keitch and Horton had tested prior to its release. The
patented Horton–Keitch braking charm meant that
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Quidditch players were much less likely to overshoot
goals or fly offside, and the Comet now became the
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broom of preference for many British and Irish teams in
consequence.
While the Cleansweep–Comet competition became
more intense, marked by the release of the improved
Cleansweeps Two and Three in 1934 and 1937
respectively, and the Comet 180 in 1938, other
broomstick manufacturers were springing up all over
Europe.
The Tinderblast was launched on the market in 1940.
Produced by the Black Forest company Ellerby and
Spudmore, the Tinderblast is a highly resilient broom,
though it has never achieved the top speeds of the Comets
and Cleansweeps. In 1952 Ellerby and Spudmore brought
out a new model, the Swiftstick. Faster than the
Tinderblast, the Swiftstick nevertheless has a tendency to
lose power in ascent and has never been used by
professional Quidditch teams.
In 1955 Universal Brooms Ltd. introduced the
Shooting Star, the cheapest racing broom to date.
Unfortunately, after its initial burst of popularity, the
Shooting Star was found to lose speed and height as it
aged, and Universal Brooms went out of business in 1978.
In 1967 the broom world was galvanised by the
formation of the Nimbus Racing Broom Company.
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Nothing like the Nimbus 1000 had ever been seen
before. Reaching speeds of up to a hundred miles per
hour, capable of turning 360 degrees at a fixed point in
mid-air, the Nimbus combined the reliability of the old
Oakshaft 79 with the easy handling of the best
Cleansweeps. The Nimbus immediately became the
broom preferred by professional Quidditch teams across
Europe, and the subsequent models (1001, 1500, and
1700) have kept the Nimbus Racing Broom Company at
the top of the field.
The Twigger 90, first produced in 1990, was intended
by its manufacturers Flyte and Barker to replace the
Nimbus as market leader. However, though highly finished
and including a number of new gimmicks such as an
inbuilt Warning Whistle and Self-Straightening Brush, the
Twigger has been found to warp under high speeds and
has gained the unlucky reputation of being flown by
wizards with more Galleons than sense.
Chapter Ten
Quidditch Today
T
he game of Quidditch continues to thrill and obsess
its many fans around the world. Nowadays every
purchaser of a Quidditch match ticket is guaranteed to
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witness a sophisticated contest between highly skilled
fliers (unless of course the Snitch is caught in the first five
minutes of the match, in which case we all feel slightly
short-changed). Nothing demonstrates this more than the
difficult moves that have been invented over its long history
by witches and wizards eager to push themselves and the
game as far as they can go. Some of these are listed below.
Bludger Backbeat
A move by which the Beater strikes the Bludger with a
backhanded club swing, sending it behind him or her
rather than in front. Difficult to bring off with precision
but excellent for confusing opponents.
Dopplebeater Defence
Both Beaters hit a Bludger at the same time for extra
power, resulting in a Bludger attack of greater severity.
Double Eight Loop
A Keeper defence, usually employed against penalty
takers, whereby the Keeper swerves around all three goal
hoops at high speed to block the Quaffle.
