DISCUSSION - Quidditch

Tue Jun 19 22:35:17 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 21184

Shall Binkly: "Some people believe Quidditch is a matter of life and death, I
am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much
more important than that." [1] [2]

Quidditch - The Noble Sport of Warlocks?
A simple sport involving fourteen players, one referee, four balls and six
goal hoops. We have three Chasers on each team and it is there job to pass the
Quaffle between them and get it through one of the oppositions goal hoops.
Doing so gains the team ten points. Trying to stop the Quaffle from entering
one of the goal hoops is the Keeper. Then we have two Beaters who knock the
Bludgers around the pitch, attempting to stop them from crashing into their
own teammates while sending them in the direction of the opposition. Finally
we have perhaps the most important player on the team and the smallest of the
four balls. The Seeker who is attempting to catch the rapidly moving Golden
Snitch and doing so gains the team one hundred and fifty points and also ends
the game.

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POSITIONS

Seeker: Arguably the most important player on the pitch and especially so in
the context of the school games. Instinct and observation are key.

Keeper: Cunning and fearlessness are important. You need to be able to fool
the opposition and intimidate them into doing something silly.

Chaser: Teamwork. The Chasers have to be able to communicate well. The
Gryffindor girls and the Irish chasers seem to know what the others are going
to do and so work amazingly well together. A high skill level is important,
but the teamwork and coordination between the three is even more crucial.

Beater: Power and brains. It is not just a case of hit and hope, you need to
be able to think and attack the right person at the right time.

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FLYING

We learn in QTtA that 'no spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in
human form' and so they instead ride on a broom.

"Flying is a strange thing. You can't settle for a broom, you have to love it
as though it were your arm or your leg. Treating the broom like it's just
something you sit on to help you fly is not enough, ... Beware flying with a
broomstick that isn't a part of you - it only leads to trouble." [3]

I would guess that I am not alone in wishing for a broomstick and sometime in
the air to fly. For an incredibly long time it has been an ambition of the
human race to be able to fly with the birds. Seemingly this is not possible by
ones self, but with the aid of a broomstick a wizard can fly high in the sky.
In the first flying lesson (PS Ch 9) we see how a broom reacts to different
people. For the nervous nothing, but for the gifted an instant attraction.
Flying, especially as a part of playing Quidditch, seems to be based around
natural instinct. Harry is one of those with natural talent. The broom seems
to obey his every thought and this shows through in his flying ability.

The big question here is how much is flying instinct and how much is training?
Also how much does this alter for the different positions on the Quidditch
field?

---------------------
GAMES

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin - PS Ch 11
Gryffindor win 170 - 60. Harry nearly swallows the Snitch after Quirrell has
hexed his broom.

Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff - PS Ch 13
Gryffindor win. Snape referees and the game is incredibly short.

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin - CoS Ch 10
Gryffindor win. Harry catches Snitch after having his arm broken by the Rogue
Bludger.

Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff - PoA Ch 9
Hufflepuff win. Harry falls off broom due to the Dementors.

Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw - PoA Ch 13
Gryffindor win. Malfoy and co. play a trick on Harry, but it fails.

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin - PoA Ch 15
Gryffindor win 230 - 20. Slytherin play dirty, but Gryffindor win thanks to
some inspired play by Harry and a faster broom than Malfoy. The cup goes to
Gryffindor.

Ireland - Bulgaria - GoF Ch 8
Ireland win 170 - 160. Bulgaria are outclassed by a very good Irish team and
Krum catches the Snitch to end the game even though his team then loses.

How realistic are these games? Do any of us have a decent grasp of the rules
and logistics of the game of Quidditch? I have many ideas, but still seem
unsure about some crucial details. The games are an important part of PS and
PoA, but are pushed out of the way in CoS and GoF. How will people feel if
Quidditch is side tracked for the rest of the series? I for one will be
mightily disappointed if we see no more Quidditch.

---------------------
TEAMS

UK and Ireland:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Geographic%20Locations/ukmap
.jpg
Europe and Africa: http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/atlas-q-eu-af.html
Asia and Oceania: http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/atlas-q-as-au.html

If my positioning of the teams in the UK map is correct then they all seem to
be situated fairly near to the coast. Looking further at the other teams
mentioned in QTtA it seems that many of these are also situated near the
coast, a big river or lake. Could this be part of the precautions to stop the
muggles from finding out about the wizards or is it just a coincidence?

---------------------
QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION POINTS (In addition to the ones asked above)

1) Who will be the new captains for the Hogwarts Quidditch teams?
Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint left Hogwarts after PoA [4] and Cedric Diggory
died in GoF. This means that Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff are
definitely in need of new Quidditch team captains and maybe Ravenclaw are also
in need of a new captain, depending on the age of Roger Davies. So who will
these new captains be? Well we do not know how the captains are chosen, but
this has never stopped us speculating on such matters!

(a) For Gryffindor we have a choice of 6 people, the three chasers [5], the
Weasley Twins or Harry. I cannot see the justification for bringing a new
player into the team and instantly making them the captain. The first five of
these have the most experience, but there is the problem that they are all in
their final year at Hogwarts. This means that at the end of the year all of
them will leave, leaving Harry, and possibly the new Keeper, as the only
players left on the team for the following year [6]. I would think it is
unlikely that a new person to the team would be made captain; the Houses are
most likely to pick someone who has played for the team before to be captain,
as they will know the set-up a lot better than a new player. So if Harry were
not made captain in his fifth year then whoever gets the job in the following
year will be left in a horribly complex position. They will be a person with
no experience at being the captain of a team and they will also be in the
position of having to pick nearly a complete new team and train them from
scratch.

(b) For Slytherin will we be seeing a new set of brooms for the team and a
certain Draco Malfoy as captain? This is another opportunity to get one over
on Harry but will he take it? Or will he, instead, just let it pass and not
bother with this anymore? He has failed in almost everything he has tried to
do against Harry and maybe he will give up and not worry about Quidditch
anymore.

(c) For the other two houses do we know of any possibilities? Will Cho
continue to play after the death of Cedric?

2) Keeper out of the scoring area?
Seemingly the rules allow for the Keeper to go anywhere on the pitch. In PoA
all of the Slytherin team, apart from Draco as Seeker, converge on one of the
Gryffindor Chasers in a very interesting manoeuvre. So, if you were a Keeper,
would you consider the possibility of flying out of the scoring area and
assisting the Chasers on an attack? If you needed quick scores then 4 on three
attacking makes a lot more sense than 3 on 3 (c.f. removing the goaltender in
ice hockey and the goalkeeper going up front in football [7]). It would give
you the spare person to attack with, but does leave you vulnerable to the
quick break. Is the risk worth the reward?

3) Other players touching the Quaffle?
There is definitely a rule against any player, except for the Seeker, touching
the Snitch [QTtA]. Is there a similar rule that bans the Seeker and Beaters
from touching the Quaffle? From my understanding of what is written in QTtA
there is not. Does this make sense? Would it be an idea that if needed your
Beaters could get involved with the Quaffle if it came their way?

4) Who won the Quidditch Cup in Harry's first year?
We know that Gryffindor did not. The results we know are Gryffindor beat
Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Ravenclaw beat Gryffindor. I do not think we know of
any of the other results. So who did win? My money would be on Ravenclaw, but
it is not definite.

5) How are new moves created? [8]
"... he gripped his broomstick with his right hand, as tightly as he could,
and threw his body to the left side, his hand outstretched. The momentum
through the air from his thrust send him spinning in a circle. While he was
halfway into it, he pulled his broom up, which made him spin in two directions
at the same time, to the left, and backwards. His eyes were wide open as he
forced them to focus on anything that might pass his field of vision, ideally
a tiny golden orb." [9]

In QTtA we are told about various moves that are commonly found in Quidditch
games and in GoF we see Krum pull off one of these moves, The Wronski Feint,
in the Quidditch World Cup. What we know little about is how anyone thinks up
a new move. Does the Muggle knowledge of various other sports give rise to
many new moves? Or do you just need an insane person to try something stupid
to come up with a fantastic new move to astound the opposition?

6) Harry, Draco or Viktor?
Which of these three is the best Seeker? A seemingly innocent question, but do
we have a clue.

Draco is talented and has won a fair number of games, against some decent
opposition (in Cho and Cedric as Seekers for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff). When
he plays against Harry he is seemingly too intent on winding him up to
actually concentrate on his own game. If he were to actually concentrate on
his own game, instead of Harry's, he could be a great player. But how great?

Harry seems to be the one how plays most to his instincts, but has he got the
brains to go with the raw talent? He has only played 6 games as Seeker and
seemingly needs to play more to become really talented. Viktor is impressed
with Harry's flying ability, but is flying enough to be a good Seeker? Is
Harry's problem likely to be that he just plays far too fair for his own good?
In PoA (Ch 13) Wood makes a comment about knocking Cho off her broom and to
stop being the gentleman.

Krum we only see play once, but he comes across as being much better than the
Irish Seeker. Ron, who knows a fair amount about Quidditch, thinks that Viktor
is good. He definitely has the match practise to get an experienced Irish
Seeker to fall for his Wronski Feint.

And to be thrown into this discussion on Seekers is the one we hear about but
do not see play. How good is Charlie? Is Harry really better than him or is
this just everyone going over the top on the praise?

7) Hogwarts Dream Team
In PoA, when he is announcing the teams, Lee remarks that the current
Gryffindor team is one of the best to have graced Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch.
Just how good are they? If there were a Hogwarts team (and why is there not
one? Or will there be one in the future to promote links between the schools?)
who would be in it? To make this slightly easier I think we will have to allow
anyone who has been at Hogwarts during Harry's time there (else the list of
Keepers is very short).

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REFERENCES

PS: Harry Potter and the Philopsher's Stone (Ch.'s 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 17)
CoS: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ch.'s 7 and 10)
PoA: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Ch.'s 8, 9, 13 and 15)
GoF: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Ch 8)
QTtA: Quidditch Through the Ages
Lex: http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/quidditch.html

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FOOTNOTES

1: True Quote - Bill Shankly (Liverpool FC manager): "Some people believe
football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that
attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
2: Related to Oliver Wood or just his inspiration?
3: From Ben Granger and the Legacy of Icarus by Helmione Nightingranger
(Helen)
4: Assuming Jo Rowling remembers that Flint should have left then and does not
decide that he is so stupid that he needs to remain at the school for a few
extra years!
5: Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell
6: Assuming that all of the above mentioned players do actually play in OotP
7:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/funny_old_game/newsid_1373000/1373339.s
tm
8: Question raised by Heidi Tandy in a recent IM conversation with me
9: From A Surfeit of Curses by Heidi Tandy
---------------------

Simon

PS: Before anyone asks - Yes I do watch and know about a lot of different
sports and hence why I am interested in Quidditch and eagerly awaiting seeing
it in the film.

PPS: Sorry this is a couple of days late. Seemingly I have far too many things
happening at the moment. I think I am done now, but may find some more
questions at some stage in the future.