① Each team plays seven players in a game. Goalkeeper (1 person): Similar to the goalkeeper in a football match, the main task is to protect the goalposts and baskets of the team and prevent the opponent's players from scoring. Batsmen (2 people): The main task is to use the bat to protect their own players from Bludgers, so they usually hit Bludgers as far away from their own team as possible, including of course Hit the ball towards an opposing player. Chasers (3 people): Chasers are responsible for attacking and scoring. They will try their best to throw the Quaffle into the opponent's hoop to score points. Seeker (1 person): An extremely important player in the game, responsible for catching the golden snitch, which can often turn defeat into victory for his team. Therefore, those who serve as seekers are usually some of the lightest and fastest fliers, who have keen eyesight and the ability to fly with one or no hands on the broom. Of course, they are also the most vulnerable players on the court. ② It is necessary to keep the secrets of Quidditch from being known to Muggles, which means that the Department of Magical Games and Sports must limit the number of games held each year. Although amateur competition is allowed as long as proper principles are followed, the number of professional Quidditch teams has been limited since the establishment of the Quidditch League in 1674. At that time, the thirteen best teams in Britain and Ireland were selected to form the Quidditch League, and all other teams were asked to disband. These thirteen teams compete for the UEFA Cup every year. Appleby Arrows This northern England team was founded in 1612. Its robe is light blue and decorated with a silver arrow. Arrows fans agree that their team's greatest moment came in 1932 when they defeated the then European champions, the Vratsa Eagles. The game lasted for sixteen days, with heavy rain and thick fog. In the past at Appleby Arrows games, as soon as their Chasers scored a goal, their supporters would shoot arrows into the air with their wands. But in 1894, an arrow pierced referee Nugent Potts' nose, and the Department of Magical Games and Sports banned this old practice. Traditionally, the rivalry between Arrows and Wimbourne Hornets has been fierce (see below). The Balicas Bats, Northern Ireland's most famous Quidditch team, have won the Quidditch League Cup twenty-seven times so far, becoming the second most successful team in the history of the Quidditch League Cup. The members of the Bat Team wear black robes with a scarlet bat on the front of the robe. Their most famous mascot, Barney the Fruit Bat, is a household name as he stars in Butterbeer commercials. (Barney said: I'm just crazy about butterbeer!) Caerphilly Crossbow Team The Welsh Crossbow Team was established in 1402. The players wear uniforms with light green and scarlet vertical stripes. Their illustrious history includes eighteen UEFA Quidditch Cups and their famous victory in the 1956 European Cup final, where they defeated the Karasjok Kites of Norway. The tragic death of their most famous athlete, "Dangerous" Day Llewellyn, who was eaten by a chimera while on holiday in Mykonos, Greece, led to a day of national mourning for the Welsh wizards. Now at the end of each season, Quidditch League Cup players who are willing to take risks and create the most exciting scenes in the game will be awarded the "'Dangerous' Dey Medal". Chudli Cannons Perhaps many people believe that the glory days of Chudli Cannons are over, but their loyal fans are looking forward to it returning to its former glory. The Cannons won the League Cup 21 times, the last time in 1892, but since then, their century-long performance has lost its luster. Members of the Chadli Artillery Corps wore bright orange robes decorated with a speeding cannonball and two black letter "Cs." The team's slogan before 1972 was "We will conquer everything" and later changed to "Let's all cross our fingers and look forward to the most glorious moment." Falmouth Falcons Falcons players wear dark gray and white team robes with an eagle head logo across the front of the robe. The Falcons are known for their hard work and they have world-famous hitters Kevin and Carl Brodeur.
The two played for the team from 1958 to 1969, further cementing the team's reputation, but their bizarre skills saw them disqualified from competitions by the Department of Magical Games and Sports no fewer than fourteen times. The team's slogan is: "Let's try to win, but if we don't win, let's break a few heads." Holyhead Harpies ① Holyhead Harpies are a very old Welsh team The team (founded in 1203) is unique among all Quidditch teams in the world because it has always consisted of only male wizards. The Harpies' jersey is dark green with a golden eagle on the chest. In 1953, the Harpies defeated the Heidelberg Hounds in what was widely regarded as the most exciting Quidditch match they had ever seen. The game lasted for seven days, and ended with the Harpies' Seeker Greene Grith catching the Snitch in a stunning move. At the end of the game, Rudolph, the captain of the Harpies, gracefully jumped off his broom and proposed to his opponent Gwendo Morgan. Morgan hit him hard with her broom "Sweep Five" and beat him to death. Concussion. Kenmare Kestrels This Irish team was founded in 1291. Their lively display of their mascot, the Leprechaun, and their supporters all playing the harp beautifully made them famous and popular around the world. Kestrels wear bright green jerseys with two yellow letters "K" printed back to back on the front. Darren O'Hare - Kestrels goalkeeper from 1947 to 1960, captain of the Irish national team three times, invented the Chaser's eagle-headed attacking formation (see Chapter 10). Montrose Magpies The Montrose Magpies are the most successful team in the British and Irish League, having won the League Cup for thirty-second times. The Magpies are two-time European Cup winners and have fans all over the world. They had many outstanding athletes, including Seeker Eunice Murray (d. 1942), who once called for "increasing the speed of the snitch because it is too easy to catch now"; and Hamish MacFarlane (captain of the team from 1957 to 1968), whose successful Quidditch career also included an equally glorious time as Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. The members of the Magpie team wear black and white team robes with a magpie on the front and back. Portree Madmen This team comes from the Isle of Skye and was formed in 1292. As their fans know, the team wears dark purple jerseys with a gold star on the chest. Their most famous chaser, Katrina McMahon, led the team in the 1960s, winning the League Cup twice and playing 36 times for Scotland. Her daughter Migian is now the team's goalkeeper. (Her son Curley is the lead guitarist of the famous Weird Girl Wizards Band.) Puddlemere United Puddlemere United was founded in 1163 and is an ancient team in the Quidditch League. Puddlemere United has won twenty-two UEFA Cup championships and won two European Cups. These are the glorious history of this team. The team's anthem is "Kids, Bounce the Bludger and Throw the Quaffle", which was recently recorded and sold as a record by wizarding diva Sestina Warbeck to raise funds for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Injuries. . Players of Puddlemere United wear navy blue robes with the team's crest: two crossed golden water candles. Tuthill Tornadoes The Tornadoes players wear blue jerseys with two dark blue letter "T"s on the front and back. The Tornadoes were formed in 1520 and enjoyed their most successful history in the early 20th century. The team, then captained by Seeker Rhodri Prenton, won the League Cup five times in a row, breaking a British and Irish record. Rhodri Prenton served as England's seeker twenty-two times and holds the British record for the fastest time to catch a snitch in a single game (three and a half seconds, against Caerphilly in 1921). Flying Crossbow Team game). Wigtown Wanderers This team from Borders was formed in 1442 by the seven children of a wizard butcher named Walter Parkin.
This team, composed of four brothers and three sisters, is said to be an invincible team. They rarely lost on the field, and it was said that this was partly because their opponents were frightened at the sight of Walter standing in the bench with a wand in one hand and a cleaver in the other. For centuries, Parkin's descendants were often seen on Wigtown football teams, and in honor of their ancestors, they wore blood-red robes with a glittering silver robe on the front. meat chopping knife. Wimbourne Hornets Wimbourne Hornets players wear yellow and black striped jersey with a wasp on the chest. The Hornets were founded in 1312. They have won eighteen UEFA Cup championships and reached the European Cup semi-finals twice. It is said that they named their team after a disgusting incident which occurred during a match against Appleby Arrows. A batsman was flying past a tree on the edge of the field. When he saw a wasp's nest among the branches, he swung his club and hit it towards the Arrows' Seeker. The Seeker was stung all over his body and had to withdraw from the game. The Hornets won, and they have adopted the Hornets as a symbol of their good fortune ever since. Wasps fans (also known as Stingers) have a tradition of buzzing loudly to distract the opponent's Chaser when the opponent's Seeker is taking a penalty kick. ③Until the early 19th century, people played Quidditch on broomsticks with various functions. These seated broomsticks were a major breakthrough from their medieval ancestors; Elio Smeth's invention of the Seat Charm in 1820 took a giant step forward in making more comfortable brooms (see Figure F). However, nineteenth-century broomsticks generally struggled to reach very high speeds and often became difficult to control once they reached high altitudes. Those brooms are usually handmade by individual broommakers. Although the style and craftsmanship of those brooms are amazing, their flying function is difficult to match their beautiful appearance. A case in point is the Oak Arrow 79 (so named because the first broomstick sample was made in 1879). The Oak Arrow was a superb-looking broom crafted by Elijah Grimm, a broommaker in Portsmouth, with a very thick oak handle, designed for long-lasting flight and resistance to high winds. The Oak Arrow is now a highly prized old-fashioned broomstick, but there has never been a successful example of playing Quidditch on it. Oak arrows are bulky and difficult to turn when flying at high speeds. Those who put the sensitivity of the broom more importantly than safety have never welcomed it, but it will always be remembered as the first tool used by Jockuda Sykes to fly across the Atlantic in 1935. (Prior to this, wizards had never believed that they could fly across the Atlantic on a broomstick, preferring to take a boat instead.) Apparition became increasingly unreliable over great distances, and only those who had mastered high flight could Only an astute wizard with great skill could manage to use it to cross the continent. The Moondream was first produced by Ladis Boothby in 1901 and represented a great leap forward in broom making. For a time, these slender ash-handled brooms were in high demand as Quidditch brooms. The Moon Dream's main advantage over other brooms is that it can reach heights that previous brooms couldn't reach (and still be able to maneuver at such heights). The Quidditch players were clamoring for more Moondream broomsticks, but Ladis Boothby was unable to make them and could not satisfy their demands. A new kind of broomstick, the Silver Arrow, was welcomed; the true ancestor of the racing broom, it was much faster than the Moondream or the Oak Arrow (up to 70 miles per hour with a tailwind), and like them, the Silver Arrow Arrows are also the product of an individual wizard (Leonard Jukes), and they are also in short supply. A new breakthrough occurred in 1926, when three brothers, Bob, Bill and Barnaby Orton, founded the Sweep Broom Company. They produced large quantities of the first model of the Sweep One Star broomstick at an unprecedented speed and launched it on the market as a competition broom specially designed for sports.
Sweeping Star was an instant success, driving all previous broomsticks to a dead end, and in less than a year, every Quidditch team in the UK was riding Sweeping Star. The Oletown brothers had a brief monopoly on the competition broom market. In 1929, two Falmouth Falcons athletes, Randolph Cage and Basil Horton, founded another racing broom company. The Comet Trading Company's first model of broom was the Comet 140. Before it was launched on the market, Cage and Horton had tested 139 models of Comet brooms. Horton Cage's patented braking charm means Quidditch players are far less likely to score off the pitch or fly offside, and the Comet is now the broom of choice for many teams across the UK and Ireland. In 1934 and 1937, the improved Sideswipe Two Star and Three Star were put on the market respectively, and the Comet 180 was also launched in 1938. This marked that the competition between Sideways and Comet became more and more fierce. At the same time, other broom manufacturers also appeared. Sprung up all over Europe. The off-string arrow entered the market in 1940 and was produced by the Black Forest Company of Ellerby and Badmore. It was a very bouncy broom, although it never had the speed to match Comet and Sweep. In 1952, Black Forest Company produced a new type of broom called Xunda. The speed of the Swift Broomstick was faster than that of an arrow, but its ability to rise was slightly insufficient. Professional Quidditch teams had never used this type of broomstick. In 1955, Cosmic Broomsticks Ltd. developed the Meteor broom, the cheapest racing broom ever produced. Unfortunately, as soon as it became popular, it was discovered that its speed and ability to rise decreased over time. Cosmic Broom Co., Ltd. went bankrupt in 1978. In 1967, the Nimbus Racing Broomstick Company shocked the broomstick world. Never before had people seen a broom like the Nimbus 1000. The Nimbus combines the safety of the old-fashioned Oak Arrow with the maneuverability of the best Sweep series, capable of reaching speeds of one hundred miles an hour and capable of making 360-degree turns anywhere in the air. The Nimbus broomstick was immediately favored by professional Quidditch teams across Europe. Subsequently, various models of Nimbus broomsticks (Nimbus 1001, Nimbus 1500 and Nimbus 1700) have continued to dominate the broom industry. The Twigg 90 was first produced in 1990. Manufacturers Flat and Buck planned to use it to replace the light wheel and become the dominant player in the broom market. However, although Twigg was extremely beautifully crafted and included many gimmicks, such as an embedded alarm whistle and a self-straightening tail branch, it was found to bend out of shape at high speeds, and it gained an unlucky reputation as more of a wizard than a wizard. It is better to say that their wisdom is made possible by galleons. ④: It seems not ⑤: Who would fly around in the sky on a broomstick with nothing to do? Besides, brooms can't fly. .