Imagine you’re playing rugby. You’ve got the ball and you’re aiming to score, only instead of goalposts, there are three hoops. On the opposing team, two players are trying to hit you with dodgeballs while another is blocking the hoops. Three more are trying to steal the ball off you by full-body tackling you to the ground. Somewhere in the ensuing chaos, a frenzied game of tag is happening.
Now imagine you’re doing all of this with a metre of PVC pipe held between your legs.
Welcome to real-life quidditch: once solely the realm of the sporty wizards and witches of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, now a complex and rapidly expanding international sport – and one at which Australia, surprisingly, excels.
Fresh from their win at the Quidditch World Cup in Germany this July, where the Australian Dropbears bested the previously unbeaten United States national team, the Australian quidditch community is limbering up for an event set to rival the magic of last weekend’s AFL and NRL grand finals. This Sunday, Sydney will host the Quidditch Australia State of Origin tournament between the Victorian Leadbeaters and the New South Wales Blue Tongue Wizards.
Pieces of PVC pipe or dowelling stand in for the flying brooms which, as Potter fans would note, are one of the essential elements of the magical sport in Rowling’s world. But the game has evolved a lot since it emerged in the US in 2005, where the first “Muggle” players (“non-magical”, in Potter parlance) wore capes and rode real brooms. The capes have been replaced by conventional sportswear, and while bristles are still allowed, many players started ditching them when they got too many scratches.
At their training session at Parramatta Park on Sunday, the NSW state team was practising their tackling skills, a crucial element of the fast-paced, high-impact sport.
“You have to be fit,” said Evan Wright, 21, who plays as a beater – one of two positions responsible for hurling the bludgers (dodgeballs), which momentarily knock players out of play. “It’s one of the most tiring sports I’ve played, and I’ve played soccer and rugby league.”
A testament to the intense physicality of the sport, Wright has also sustained several injuries. “Right now I have a corked knee,” he said. “I’ve rolled my ankles several times. I’ve actually torn my muscle in my groin from playing and I had to have a couple of months off.”
Emily, 21, plays as a chaser, one of the three on-field players responsible for passing the quaffle (a slightly deflated volleyball) and scoring goals. She admitted to being a huge Harry Potter fan; having previously played netball and run cross-country, she joined her university’s quidditch team as soon as she found out about it.
“What I like about quidditch is that you don’t have to have the same skills to be a good chaser or a good beater – you can have two very different players that are just as good as each other,” she said.
Sakeenah Wahab, also a chaser, said the best bit about quidditch were the players themselves. “Everyone’s really social and chilled,” she said.
According to the International Quidditch Association, real-life quidditch was the brainchild of two university students in Vermont, US. Since 2005, the sport has spread internationally, including to Canada, the UK, Europe, Brazil, Korea and Uganda. In Australia – where the first quidditch teams were formed on the NSW university circuit – there are now 24 teams in five states and more than 650 players Australia-wide.
Another distinctive feature of the sport is that it is also strictly mixed-gender – each team can have no more than four players of the same gender identification on field at any time. It is also explicitly LGBTI friendly, with the rule book acknowledging that players’ gender identification might not correspond with their physical sex, and that it is ultimately an inclusive sport.
Nicholas Hirst from Quidditch Australia said this kind of gender inclusivity made the game unique, particularly among contact sports. “The progressive and inclusive community is something we are incredibly proud of, and one of the primary reasons why our retention rate is so high,” Hirst said.
Community clubs are a growing force, and while the university teams mean a large proportion of players are in their early-to-mid 20s, it is by no means a youth-specific affair. Hirst said many players continued into their 30s, and recalled a national tournament two years ago which featured a 56-year-old player.
He said the intellectual side of the sport made it more accessible than many other games. “It’s a lot more about how quick-witted you are, how smart you are as a sportsperson, rather than just how good you are physically.”
• Quidditch Australia’s State of Origin takes place on Sunday 9 October at the University of New South Wales David Phillips Sports Complex
