Potter’s field

Hendrix College’s Quidditch contests rarely result in a clean sweep

Ed Crews (puffy hair and black headband), co-organizer of the Hendrix Quidditchers, bears down upon the Keeper of the Team Orange Headbands hoop, Dmitriy Nurullayev, as orange headbanders saunter menacingly nearby.
Ed Crews (puffy hair and black headband), co-organizer of the Hendrix Quidditchers, bears down upon the Keeper of the Team Orange Headbands hoop, Dmitriy Nurullayev, as orange headbanders saunter menacingly nearby.

— In these recessionary times, reliable flying brooms are beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.

Undaunted, in colleges and some high schools around the nation, the Harry Potter generation is playing Quidditch.

At Hendrix College, 12 to 14 students gather on Friday evenings for a pedestrian version of the contact sport inspired by the Potter movies’ broomflying wizards.

Students straddle angle-tip brooms to gallop and collide on a patch of lawn bounded by opposing rows of hula hoops.

Organized by freshmen Felicia Walker and Ed Crews, the Hendrix Quidditchers aim to become an official student club and join the national Intercollegiate Quidditch Association’s Southeast Region.

Their hoop goals are taped to poles donated by a cafeteria lady. They plant the poles in flower pots and plant the pots in laundry baskets weighted by boring books. Goals are scored by Chasers, who try to hurl a soccer ball (the “quaffle”) past the opposing team’s Keeper and through a hoop.

Beaters fling kickballs (aka “bludgers”) at the Chasers and also at opposing Beaters.

Meanwhile, the Snitch, a runner impersonating Harry Potter’s devilishly intelligent flying sphere, plays hide-and seek with Seekers, one from each team. If your team’s Seeker grabs the Snitch’s ... uh ... tennis ball - without dropping a broom - you win 50 points, and the game.

Players aren’t sure of the rules, and once in a while spectators’ dogs run off with their gear; but somehow they Muggle through.

ActiveStyle, Pages 29 on 03/08/2010

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