Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland
The necessity for keeping
the game of Quidditch secret from Muggles means that' the Department of
Magical Games and Sports has had to limit the
number of games played each year. While amateur games are permitted
as long as the appropriate guidelines are followed, professional Quidditch
teams
have been limited in number since 1674 when the League was established.
At that time, the thirteen best Quidditch teams in Britain and Ireland
were
selected to join the League and all others were asked to disband.
The thirteen teams continue to compete each year for the League Cup.
Appleby Arrows
This northern, English
was founded in 1612. Its robes are pale blue, emblazoned with a silver
arrow. Arrows fans will- agree that their team's most
glorious hour was their 1932 defeat of the team who were then the
European champions, the Vratsa Vultures, in a match that lasted sixteen
days in
conditions of dense fog and rain. The club supporters, old practice
of shooting arrows into the air from their wands every time one of their
Chasers scored
was banned by the Department of Magical Games and Sports in 1894,
when one of these weapons pierced the referee Nugen Potts through the nose.
There is traditionally fierce rivalry between the Arrows and the
Wimbourne Wasps (see below).
Ballycastle Bats
Northern Ireland's most
celebrated Quidditch team has won the Quidditch League a total of twenty
- seven times to date, making it the second most
successful in the Leagues history. The Bats wear black robes with
a scarlet bat across the chest. Their famous mascot Barny the Fruitbat
is also well
known as the bat featured Butterbeer advertisements (Barny says:
I'm just batty about Butterbeer!).
Caerphilly Catapults
The Welsh Catapullts,
formed in 1402, wear vertical striped robes of light green and scarlet.
The distinguished club history includes eighteen League wins
and a famous triumph in the European Cup final of 1956 when they
defeated the :Norwegian Karasjok Kites. tragic demise of their most famous
player,
"Daiigerov Dai Llewellyn, who was eaten by a Chimaera while on a
holiday in Mykonos, Greece, resulted in a day of national mourning for
all Welsh
witches and wizards. The Dangerous Dai Commemorative Medal is now
awarded the end of each season to the League player who has taken the most
exciting and foolhardy risks during a game.
Chudley Cannons
The Chudley Cannons'
glory days may be considered by many to be over, but their devoted fails
live in hope of a renaissance. The Cannons. have won
the League twenty - one times, but the last time they did so was
in 1892 u their performance over the last century has be lacklustre. The
Chudley Cannons
wear robes of bright orange. emblazoned with a speeding cannon ball
and a double "C" in black. The club motto was changed in 1972 From "We
shall
conquer" to "Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for
the best."
Falmouth Falcons
The Falcons wear dark
- grey and white robes with a falcon - head emblem across the chest. The
Falcons are known for hard play, a reputation
consolidated by their world - famous Beaters, Kevin and Karl Broadmoor,
who played for the club from 1958 to 1969 and whose antics resulted in
no
fewer than fourteen suspensions from the Department of Magical Games
and Sports. Club motto: "Let us win, but if we cannot win, let is break
a few
heads."
The Holyhead Harpies
The Holyhead Harpies
is a very old Welsh club (founded 1203), unique among Quidditch teams around
the world because it has only ever hired witches.
Harpy robes are dark green with a golden talon upon the chest. The
Harpies' defeat of the Heidelberg Harriers in 1953 is widely agreed to
have been one
of the finest games ever seen. Fought over a seven - day period,
the game was brought to an end by a spectacular Snitch capture by the Harpy
Seeker
Glynnis Griffiths. The Harriers' Captain Rudolf Brand famously dismounted
from his broom at the end of the match and proposed marriage to his opposite
number, Gwendolyn Morgan, who concussed him with her Cleansweep
Five.
Kenmare Kestrels
This Irish side was founded
in 1291 and is popular world wide for the spirited displays of their leprechaun
mascots and the accomplished harp playing of
their supporters. The Kestrels wear emerald - green robes with two
yellow "K"s back to back on the chest. Darren O'Hare, Kestrel Keeper 1947
- 60,
captained the Irish National Team three times and is credited with
the invention of the Chaser Hawkshead Attacking Formation.
Montrose Magpies
The Magpies are the most
successful team in the history of the British and Irish League, which,
they have won thirty - two times. Twice European
Champions, the Magpies have fans across the globe. Their many
outstanding players include the Seeker Eunice Murray (died 1942), who once
petitioned
for a "faster Snitch because this is just too easy," and Hamish
MacFarlan (Captain 1957 - 68), who followed his successful Quidditch career
with an
equally illustrious period as Head of the Department of Magical
Games and Sports. The Magpies wear black and white robes with one magpie
on the chest
and another on the back.
Pride of Portree
This team comes from
the Isle of Skye, where it was founded in 1292. The "Prides, as they are
known to their fans, wear deep - purple robes with a gold
star on the chest. Their most famous Chaser, Catriona McCormack,
captained the team to two League wins in the 1960s, and played for Scotland
thirty -
six times: Her daughter Meaghan currently plays Keeper for
the team. (Her son Kirley is lead guitarist with the popular wizarding
band The Weird
Sisters.)
Puddlemere United
Founded in 1163, Puddlemere
United is the oldest team in the League. Puddlemere has twenty - two, League
wins and two European Cup triumphs to its
credit. Its team anthem "Beat Back Those Bludgers, Boys, and Chuck
That Quaffle Here" was recently recorded by the singing sorceress Celestina
Warbeek to raise funds for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies
and Injuries. Puddlemere players wear navy - blue robes bearing the club
emblem
of two crossed golden bulrushes.
Tutshill Tornados
The Tornados wear sky
- blue robes with a double "I" in dark blue on the chest and back. Founded
in 1520, the Tornados enjoyed their greatest period of
success in the early twentieth century when, captained by Seeker
Roderick Plumpton, they won the League Cup five times in a row, a British
and Irish
record. Roderick Plumpton played Seeker for England twenty - two
times and holds the British record for fastest capture of a Snitch during
a game (three
and a half seconds, against Caerphilly Catapults, 1921).
Wigtown Wanderers
This Borders dub
was founded in 1422 by the seven offspring of a wizarding butcher named
Walter Parkin. The four brothers and three sisters were by all
accounts a formidable team who rarely lost a match, partly, it is
said, because of the intimidation felt by opposing teams at the sight of
Walter standing on
the sidelines with a wand in one hand and a meat cleaver in the
other. A Parkin descendant has often been found on the Wigtown team over
the centuries
and in tribute to their origins, the players wear blood - red robes
with a silver meat cleaver upon the chest.
Wimbourne Wasps
The Wimbourne Wasps wear
horizontally striped robes of yellow and black with a wasp upon their chests.
Founded
in 1312, the Wasps have. been eighteen times League winners and
twice semifinalists in the European Cup. They are alleged to have taken
their name
from a nasty incident which occurred during a match against the
Appleby Arrows in the mid - seventeenth century, when a Beater flying past
a tree on the
edge of the pitch noticed a wasps' nest among the branches and batted
it towards the Arrows' Seeker, who was so badly stung that he had to retire
from
the game. Wimbourne won and thereafter adopted the wasp as their
lucky emblem: Wasp fans (also known as "Stingers") traditionally
buzz loudly to
distract opposing Chasers when they are taking penalties.
This Information Came From
Quidditch Through The Ages
by Kenniworthy Whisp