The Meadows to host elite league Quidditch match

Edinburgh's Meadows is to host Quidditch Premier League fixture.

The Scottish Thistles are hosting a home game at the Meadows

The event will be hosted at the Meadows by the new Quidditch Premier League team the Scottish Thistles.

The competition is an elite quidditch league that represents the sport in the United Kingdom.

Inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Quidditch has developed into its own sport, with 20,000 competing international players, 25 competing countries, and an international rulebook.

A Quidditch team consists of 21 athletes with 7 players per team on pitch at any one time.

Each player has a broom between their legs.

The “four maximum rule” of quidditch states that at most there can be four players of the same gender on pitch at one time.

This ensures that the game is mixed gender, and inclusive to all.

The event at the Meadows will be a home fixture for the Scottish Thistles, who won their first game against the Yorkshire Roses at the first Northern fixture in Manchester last month.

Thistles manager and co-captain Gavin Hughes said, “this is our home fixture, our chance to do Scotland proud on home turf, and we intend to fight for every inch of every game.

The morale in the team is high and we have no preconceived expectations, so that should give us the ability to play with absolute freedom. Our opponents have everything to lose”.

As a new addition to the Quidditch Premier League, the Scottish Thistles want to set a precedent and have so far impressed all of their opponents.

How does quidditch work?

A quidditch team consists of 21 athletes with 7 players per team on the field at any one time. Each player has a broom between their legs. The four maximum rule of quidditch states that at most there can be four players of the same gender on pitch at one time. This ensures that the game is mixed gender and inclusive to all.

A team of seven will have 1 keeper, 3 chasers, 2 beaters and 1 seeker:

Chasers: throw the quaffle through the opposite team’s hoops to score goals, worth 10 points.

Keepers: guard the hoops from opposing chasers, and become a fourth chaser on offense.

Beaters: throw bludgers at the opposing team to temporarily ‘knock them out’ of the game, and make them return to hoops.

Seekers: catch the snitch, worth 30 points, to end the game.

A game of quidditch involves three three types of balls:

Quaffle: a semi-deflated volleyball thrown through the hoops by chasers and keepers. There is one quaffle on pitch.

Bludgers: dodgeballs thrown at other players by beaters. There are three bludgers on pitch.

Snitch: a sock with a tennis ball in it, attached to the snitch runner’s shorts. When caught by either team’s seeker, the game ends.