Quidditch for Muggles
This is a land-based version of the popular game Quidditch, played by characters in the Harry Potter series of books by JK Rowling. I did not create this version of the game, but darned if I can find wherever I dug this up from!
Equipment:
- 1 Quaffle - a large football sized foam ball (for indoors - you might try a light football or beach ball for outside)
- 2 Bludgers - tennis sized foam balls (keep these as foam as they are used to throw at players)
- 1 Golden Snitch - a very small, very bouncy ball about the size of a large marble. Alternatively an odd shaped small ball that has an unpredictable bounce.
- Some kind of goal at each end of the Hall or field.
- A loud whistle for the referee!
Players: Each team needs:
- 1 Keeper - (a goalkeeper). SAVES GOALS ANY WAY SHE CAN.
- 3 Chasers - (shooters or centre forwards) CHASERS ONLY TOUCH THE QUAFFLE.
- 2 Beaters - (essentially defenders to put off the Chasers) BEATERS ONLY TOUCH THE BLUDGERS.
- 1 Seeker - (a loner who has only to catch the Golden Snitch) SEEKERS ONLY TOUCH THE GOLDEN SNITCH.
Object of the Game: Basically using either a "bouncing the ball as you run" technique or a "pass it in the air like volleyball" one (depending on your Hall/Field and the bounciness of your Quaffle, the Chasers have to score goals. The Keepers have to stop them.
The Beaters throw the Bludgers at the Chasers on the opposite team. If they hit a Chaser then the Chaser has to stop still or sit for the count of three (without touching the Quaffle). This is the equivalent of falling off of a broomstick! It even has to work that way if the Chasers are hit by their own Beaters by mistake.
The Seeker waits to see when and where the Golden Snitch might appear and has to try to catch it. She basically ignores the rest of the game. If she catches the Golden Snitch her team have won as it is worth so many points. The Golden Snitch is thrown on intermittently by two Guiders (or YLs or Guides) one each side of the field of play. They bounce it to each other and have to retrieve it quickly before the Seekers have a chance to catch it. There are no rules as to how many times the Golden Snitch is thrown, it just makes brief and occasional appearances.
Scoring:
- A goal scores 10 points.
- If the Golden Snitch is caught then it scores 150. This effectively is the end of the game.
Tips:
This is very much a contact game, so keep the balls as light as possible - foam works well but the Quaffle sized one is a poor bouncer... this is still better than bruised Guides. You can vary the numbers if needed by adding more Chasers and Beaters. However there should only ever be ONE Seeker per team. You will need to be subtle about playing the Golden Snitch. Pick moments of confusion when the Seekers attention is taken off of you - or have two or three Golden Snitches (only use one at a time) so that each Guider has one and they don't know which of you is going to throw it on. (Young Leaders will love this job!) It would help if you had some kind of ribbon sash to mark the players.
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