Southampton Quidditch Club Begin With Win

Southampton Quidditch Club got off to a flying start in their first ever match, with a 2-0 aggregate win over Reading Rocs. Yes, you heard that correctly! Despite it being […]


Southampton Quidditch Club got off to a flying start in their first ever match, with a 2-0 aggregate win over Reading Rocs.

Yes, you heard that correctly! Despite it being unrecognised on Microsoft Word (something I am surprised J. K. Rowling hasn’t managed to sort out), Quidditch is sweeping through Great Britain, with the first match to have ever been played in Hampshire taking place on Saturday 11th May between Southampton and Reading. In a thrilling yet decidedly one-sided match, Southampton came out on top in a gloriously sweet debut, winning 130-10, then 80-20.

At 3pm, despite the rain, the crowds gathered: family and friends, curious passers-by, BBC South Today and even a man and his dog to watch the new local team play its first official match, against a Reading Rocs team who had previously won one and lost one game, respectively.

Fortunately, the crowds were not disappointed. Southampton, led by captain Sarah Dorricott and buoyed by the inclusion of England international Robbie Young, sped into a rapid and unassailable lead of 80-0, mainly due to the crafty Chaser-iness (it’s a word now…) of Jess Xiao – for the record, the snitch is only worth 30 points in Muggle Quidditch rather than 150, or else the rest of the game would be virtually pointless. After 20 minutes of hide-and-seek on the Common, the snitch runner returned to the pitch, greeted by a roar from the spectators. After strong efforts from both Young and Caitlin Ripley, who succeeded in exhausting him, the snitch was finally snatched by seeker Ollie Craig, sparking a mass celebration and pitch invasion from all the other Southampton players.

But it didn’t stop there! After the snitch runner had attacked the seekers with a water gun (yeah, that’s right; he can do whatever he wants), a second, tighter game followed, with Reading taking an early lead. However, excellent beater work from both Helen Genders and Katie Weaver succeeded in keeping Reading at bay long enough for Young to grab the snitch in an audacious fashion, before even arriving back onto the playing pitch. Cue a mass bundle from the Southampton players!

However, despite any perceptions that you may have (I know them – I had them myself before playing), this is a full contact sport. An elbow to the face for Reading Keeper Timothy Lee resulted in a golf-ball-sized eyelid and a trip to A&E. Thankfully no lasting damage was done, however it certainly reminded everyone of the potential dangers of such a physically aggressive sport.

With the sport growing exponentially in popularity around the world, Quidditch is bound to extend to more than the current 20 Universities in the UK. One thing is for sure, if Saturday is anything to go by, Southampton can hope to be one of the teams to beat in the coming few years!

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