Quidditch Fan Song
(To the tune of Take Me Out to the Ball Game)

Take me out to see Quidditch
Take me out for the match
Buy me Bertie's Every Flavor Beans
I love them all except if they're green
And we'll root root root for the Seeker
Let's hope that he grabs the Snitch
For it's one-hundred fifty points when you play Quidditch!
     -- Filksong  by Caius Marius (website)
 

Introduction
Quidditch, "the sport of warlocks," is the premier sport of the wizarding world. Everyone follows Quidditch. The World Cup matches attract hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world. Quidditch is a fast, dangerous, exciting game in which two teams flying on broomsticks compete for points scored by throwing a ball--the Quaffle--through hoops on either end of a large grassy pitch. 

Quidditch falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Games and Sports, part of the Ministry of Magic. The professional organization is called the International Association of Quidditch. Professional matches are attended by trained mediwizards and while there are many injuries, there are few deaths from Quidditch accidents. However, referees have been known to disappear completely only to turn up weeks later in the middle of the Sahara Desert. There are seven hundred possible ways to commit a foul in Quidditch, all of which occurred in a World Cup match held in 1473. 

The name "Quidditch" comes from Queerditch Marsh, the place where the game originated in the 1000s.

Rules
Equipment
Teams

teams of Britain teams of Europe teams of Asia teams of Africa teams of Oceana teams of North and South America Hogwarts teams

Famous Plays and Maneuvers
Terms
Books about Quidditch
Timeline: Quidditch
Other Quidditch organizations
Related links

Rules of play by Jeff Shear
Quidditch is played up on broomsticks up in the air. There are four goal posts at either ends of a field. That field is called a Quidditch Pitch. Quidditch has three balls. The ball that scores the points is the Quaffle. The Quaffle is 12 inches in diameter and is made of leather bindings. The Quaffle has made some different changes over the years. The Bludger is probably the most dangerous ball of all of them. It flies through the air being hit by players called beaters. Serious injuries have been caused by Bludgers hitting people and causing them to fall off their brooms. The third and most important ball is the Golden Snitch. The Golden Snitch is a tiny ball that has wings and is enchanted. The first Snitch was a tiny bird that was very small and very tiny, but changes to the rules made it illegal to use the actual bird. The current enchanted, winged ball version of the Snitch was invented by Bowman Wright of Godric's Hollow. If the Seeker catches the Golden Snitch, their team earn 150 points and usually the win.

At either end of the Quidditch Pitch are three hoops through which the Quaffle can be scored. In the center of the Pitch is a circle where the balls are all thrown into the air and the match begins. As the balls are thrown, the players all gather on the ground and then kick off as the referee blows his/her whistle. During the game a player can get a foul or break a rule. Here are some fouls that a player can receive: blagging (applies to all players, it is when a player seizes opponent's broom tail to slow or hinder), blatching (applies to all players, it is when a person is flying with the intent to collide), bumphing (applies to beaters only, it is when a Beater is hitting a Bludger towards the crowd, necessitating a halt of the game as the officials rush to protect bystanders. Sometimes used by unscrupulous players to prevent an opposing Chaser from scoring). 

Quidditch equipment
Pitch
The Quidditch pitch is a grassy oval field, 500 feet long by 180 feet wide. There is a small circle in the center of the field where the balls are released. Three 50-foot-tall poles with hoops on them stand at either end as goals. There is a scoring area marked off at each end, around the area of the hoops. 
Quaffle
red ball, enchanted with Gripping Charms so it can be handled easily and a special charm to make it fall slowly if dropped
Bludger
heavy iron ball which is enchanted to attack any player nearby
Golden Snitch
walnut-sized golden ball with silver wings, bewitched to avoid capture for as long as possible
bats
enchanted bats used by the Beaters to "redirect" the Bludgers toward opposing team members
broomsticks
ridden by the players and referee

famous plays and maneuvers
Hawkshead Attacking Formation
three Chasers together, one in the center and slightly ahead of the other two (GF8)

Porskoff Ploy
a Chaser makes as if to dart upward with the quaffle, drawing an opposing Chaser upwards, then dropping the Quaffle to another Chaser (GF8)

Wronski Defensive Feint
Seeker dives toward the ground as if he sees the Snitch, only to draw the opposing Seeker into a similar dive and drive him into the ground. (GF8)

terms
Beaters
players who protect other players from bludgers while attempting to hit the Bludgers toward opposing players using a small bat
blagging
Foul: Grabbing onto the broom tail of another player
blatching
Foul: flying to intentionally collide with another player
Blooder
an early term for the Bludger, used in Goodwin Kneen's 12th century letter (QA)
Bludger
heavy black iron ball that is encanted to attempt to knock players off their brooms
originated in Queeditch Marsh in the 1000s as a chamed rock, but as years went by the rock proved too breakable against enchanted Beater bats--the players found themselves chased by flying gravel as the game wore on
Bludger Backbeat
Foul:
blurting
Foul: locking broom handles with another player to pull them off course
bumphing
Foul: intentionally hitting a Bludger toward the crowd in order to halt the game momentarily and thereby denying an opposing Chaser a score
Catcher
probably an old term for Seeker, used in Goodwin Kneen's 12th century letter
Chasers
players who pass the quaffle, trying to throw it through the goal; there are three on a Quidditch team
cobbing
foul, excessive use of elbows (GF8, QA)
Cuaditich
old term for Quidditch c. 1269
flacking
Keeper foul: pushing any part of their body through the goal hoop to prevent a score.
goals
three on each end, fifty-foot poles with hoops on them
Golden Snitch
tiny golden ball with wings, when caught it ends the game and gives the team whose Seeker caught it 150 points
invented in 1300s by Bowman Wright of Godric's Hollow as a replacement for the Golden Snidget bird, which was used in the game of Quidditch until banned in the 1200s (QA)
haversacking
Chaser foul: when the Quaffle goes through the hoop before it is released from the Chaser's hand (it must be thrown to score)
Hunter
old term for the Seeker from the mid-1200s (QA)
Keeper
player who guards the goal hoops
Kwidditch
Early spelling of Quidditch in the 1100s letter by Goodwin Kneen
Quaffle
biggish red ball, used to score goals, about the size of a soccer ball
quafflepocking
Chaser foul: Tampering with a Quaffle to make if fly differently
Quidditch Cup
won by a Hogwarts house each year (
Quality Quidditch Supplies
store in Diagon Alley (CS4)
Quijudge
14th Century term for the referee
scoring area
areas of the field marked off by curved lines around the goals where only one Chaser at a time may be
Seeker
player whose goal is to spot and catch the Golden Snitch
skinning
foul, flying to deliberately collide with another player
snitchnip
Foul: any other player than the Seeker touching the Snitch
stooging
a tactic once allowed where two of the Chasers would ram the Keeper aside so the third Chaser could score a goal. This was outlawed in 1884 and Stooging is now a foul.

books about Quidditch

• Quidditch Through The Ages, a general reference work, by Kennilworthy Whisp
• Flying With The Cannons, a book devoted to the Chudley Cannons team
• Which Broomstick, helpful for choosing which broomstick to purchase
• Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland (GF23)
• Beaters' Bible by Brutus Scrimgeour (QA)
• The Wonder of the Wigtown Wanderers by Kennilworthy Whisp (QA)
• He Flew Like A Madman by Kennilworthy Whisp; biography of "Dangerous" Dai Llewellyn (QA)
• Beating the Bludgers - A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch by Kennilworthy Whisp (QA)
• The Noble Sport of Warlocks by Quintius Umfraville (QA)

Other Quidditch organizations

• International Association of Quidditch (GF8)

Related links

• Queerditch Marsh
• Atlas of Hogwarts: The Quidditch Pitch
• broomsticks
• Quidditch World Cup