Quidditch Season off to a Flying Start
Posted by Bronnie Jeynes (Muggles) on
14 October 2013
The Monash Muggles Quidditch Team captured some magic with an unprecedented win over the reigning Victorian champions in the first match of the Victoria Cup.
Fine weather and an unusually busy Quidditch Park (Alexandra Gardens in the city) greeted the members of the Victorian Quidditch Association (VQA) on the first day of the Victoria Cup competition on Saturday the 12th of October. Having battled weekend public transport and fought with rowers, skaters, runners and probably five other groups besides for parking, the teams began to assemble. With no Quidditch having been played since the end of the Winter League, there was palpable excitement from the players and supporters to be ‘flying’ once again.
Stemming from the phenomenon of the Harry Potter series, Muggle Quidditch is a fast paced, high action contact sport played on, you guessed it, brooms. A combination of rugby, basketball, dodge ball and tiggy, play can be baffling if you don’t know what’s going on. Essentially you want to put a specific ball (the Quaffle) through a hoop more times than your opposition succeeds in doing, while avoiding being hit by other balls thrown by the opposition, and one particularly fast member of your team chases someone else in a pair of golden shorts and attempts to seize a sock (the Snitch) that is attached to the back of them. A snitch snatch (obtaining the sock from the runner in the golden shorts) gains your team 30 extra points and ends the game.
10am saw hoops set up, brooms shouldered and two teams gathering on the pitch for the first match of the new season. The Monash Muggles, with three new recruits to the side since the last season were facing the Victorian champions: the Melbourne Manticores, winners of both the VQA Winter League, and the Melbourne Mudbash. With a brief run down of the major rule changes with the introduction of a new rule book, the teams arranged themselves into starting positions: in a line on one knee in front of goals. “Brooms up!” was called and play began.
The Muggles were away to a quick start, with a strong line-up of fast chasers and accurate beaters on the field. Bludger control was obtained, as well as the Quaffle, and the first goal of the season was rapidly obtained by the Muggles, much to the delight of the team and supporter. Putting into play some of the new tactics that the Muggles had been working on over the last few weeks, their defence was proven to be too strong for a reduced Manticores side, and the Muggles went on to obtain a further 4 unanswered goals, bring the score rapidly to 50 – nil. It wasn’t until after Manticores player Mick was rushed off to hospital with a badly damaged ankle that the Manticores scored. The game continued to develop rapidly, with the Muggles adding up the goals and the Manticores never even looking like they were going to catch up, until the snitch was finally caught after 40 exhausting minutes by the Manticore seeker, bringing the final score to 160 to 70, giving the Muggles not only the first victory of the season, but their first ever over the Manticores.
It’s an exciting start to the new season for the team, and feel free to contact us if you’d be interested in getting involved with the team, whether that be as a supporter, player or orange slice provider.