The trouble with Quidditch

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 168927

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ken Hutchinson" <klhutch@> 
> wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Krum's decision to catch the snitch when Bulgaria was only 160 
> > points down makes no sense under the scoring rules. Maybe it wasn't 
> > likely they would gain back enough ground to win with the snitch 
> > but it was sure worth waiting a while to be sure of that.
> 
> 
> zanooda: 
> 
> Don't forget that it was Lynch who saw the Snitch first, not Krum. 
> Krum didn't see it, because his nose was broken and he was bleeding 
> heavily. Even if his intention was to wait a little longer, in this 
> state he probably was unable to stop Lynch from catching the Snitch, 
> so he just had no choice but to catch it himself. If Lynch caught the 
> Snitch, the final score would have been 320 to 10. Wouldn't look so 
> good for the Bulgarians, would it :-)?
>

Ken:

But you don't have to catch the Snitch to prevent the other Seeker
from catching it. I think Hermione is right that Krum *chose* to end
the match on his terms, it just wasn't the best strategy. In the end
it probably wouldn't have mattered since the Bulgarians didn't seem to
have an answer for the Irish scoring machine but it makes no strategic
sense to catch the Snitch when doing so leaves you a mere 10 points
shy of winning.

It seems to me the Bulgarians actually did have an answer to the Irish
scoring machine available to them. They should have basically
abandoned any hope of using their chasers to score. They should have
used their chasers and beaters in some defensive combination to both
help their goal keeper defend their goals and to interfere with the
Irish seeker. If they had slowed down the Irish scoring they would
have given Krum more time to catch the Snitch when doing so would have
won the game. That appears to have been their best game plan.
Evidently our author isn't enough of a sports fan to see the strategic
nuances of the game she invented. 

I realize that the Hogwarts Quidditch cup is at least partly based on
the total scoring for the school year. But that does not diminish the
advantage that the scoring system gives the team that catches the
Snitch. It just makes it that much more important that you catch the
Snitch in every match. The qualifying rounds for the World Cup may be
based on total points too. But I doubt that the final match is. It has
to be a winner take all affair to generate the interest it does.
Otherwise the match itself would be pointless many years. That Irish
team must have been doing that to opponents all year long. In terms of
total points since the last Cup the Bulgarians must have been
hoplessly behind going into the match. The game wouldn't have been
worth watching unless the Bulgarians were able to win the Cup by
winning the game.

Ken