All About The Rice: Quidditch..... For REAL!

Bradyn loves all things Harry Potter. We all know that. So just imagine the ear-piercing squeal she let out on Friday night when Aunty Ita told her that the Quidditch National Championships were taking place in Burnaby this weekend. For real. Once we explained that no, they would not be wearing capes and no, they would not actually be flying, Bradyn came back down to Earth and immediately started asking where and when.

On Saturday afternoon the 5 of us headed out to Swangard Stadium in Burnaby to see the Winnipeg Whomping Willows versus UVic Valkyries Quidditch and the Alberta Clippers versus McGill Quidditch. Kevin had read up on the rules online and as we sat in the stands, we talked through the book version of the game versus what Kevin read about the 'real' version and we pretty quickly got up to speed. I still giggle to myself when I think about the fact that a bunch of university students across Canada have created this league but at the same time, I'm not surprised at all.

When I saw this banner as we entered the stadium, there was no denying this was real.

The way you get points is to throw the Quaffle (the white ball that is a slightly deflated volleyball) through the rings on each end of the field - different point values for each ring size.

I have to admit I was disappointed that the players weren't actually on broomsticks, so I stole this picture from the Burnaby Now article online .... if we'd gone to watch last year (that's right, they played here last year too), they would have been on brooms.

This year, they were on white metal sticks (boo!). I was actually surprised how fast, intense and rough the game was. It reminded me of soccer by the running around and rugby by the contact. I'm telling you, it must have been hard work.

Being in the stands wasn't good enough for Bradyn, so she and Uncle Dallas went right down to the sidelines. The purple balls are the Bludgers - the ones you hit your opponents with so they have to run back to the opposite end of the field and touch the rings as a penalty. When you've got the Quaffle and you're trying to score points, you have to keep your eyes on the 3 Bludgers so you don't lose the Quaffle. Crazy!

The guy dressed in yellow is the Snitch and to win the game, you have to grab the tennis ball hanging from the yellow sock on his waist. (Yes, there were quite a few rude jokes tossed around among us 4 adults).

The people with yellow headbands are the Seekers, and they are the only ones who can steal the ball from the Snitch. The funniest part was the fact that for the first 10 minutes of the game, the snitch ran off into the surrounding park and then when it was time, the seekers had to go find him. They all ended up coming back to the field where the end of the game played out.