Chapter 8 Summary: The Quidditch World Cup

[s_luhtanen at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26787

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Jen Piersol" <jenP_97 at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> > Finally, in a desperation move to save some semblance of his 
pride,
> > Krum captures the snitch, even though Bulgaria is down by 160 
> > points and it's not going to win them the game
> 
> We don't KNOW that it's his pride (we don't know at all WHY), it's 
> just that Harry stated that it was his pride. 

Quite. Not pride - it was sound tactics!
Bulgarian strong point was their Seeker, Krum.
Irish strong point was their team-work in gaining points by the big 
red ball.

Therefore, Bulgarian strategy: Get the snitch as fast as possible.
           Irish strategy: Score, score and score while keeping the 
game going on!

This, and the speed of the game dictates that Krum will catch the 
snitch - no matter who wins. The twins knew enough of Quidditch and 
the teams to know the strategies. They [i]knew[/i] that Krum would 
catch the snitch - and had faith on Irish team to score more than 150 
points before that. Time is essential here... They don't need 
divination - only knowledge on a) shortest game - standard 
statistics, of course. and crucial: b) how fast the Irish team scores 
151? If b) takes less time than a) - then it's pretty safe to make 
just that bet!