Madrid Muggles Are Spellbinding At Quidditch [Video]
Harry Potter would be proud. Despite the fact that the Potter movies are all done, a whole bunch of Muggles in Madrid, Spain have taken up the magical sport of quidditch. While they are quick to say they cannot fly, they also say, “but give us time.”
The Local Spain interviewed a whole bunch of youngsters from Madrid’s Complutense University recently and filmed them as they played.
While you might naturally think that youngsters in Spain would be football crazy, think again. Some bright spark came up with the idea to play a different, and much more fun, type of sport.
It starts off with the referee yelling “Brooms up!” and the players charge at each other, with their purple brooms held between their legs while wearing their best purple, black, and yellow uniforms. Meanwhile, the golden snitch runs and prances around the pitch as everyone tries their best to catch it.
Video: Brooms up! Quidditch puts @thelocalspain under its spell in Madrid http://t.co/iCY2WTM6jC Ping @IQAquidditch pic.twitter.com/noL8FcYAS7
— The Local Europe (@TheLocalEurope) February 25, 2015
Made famous in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of books, quidditch is gradually becoming one of Spain’s favorite sports. In the case of the Madrid team, they have named themselves the Madrid Lynx and the logo on their uniforms is, appropriately, an image of a yellow lynx with its teeth bared.
When the Local asked how they get around the issue of flying broomsticks, one of the female players, Bea López, laughed and said they can’t fly, but “we’re working on that but… give us time.”
However, rather like Harry Potter’s experiences, the game is pretty violent. Referee Jean Blake laughed and said, yes, just like in the books, its violent in Madrid too, as she watched two of the team members crash into each other.
“It’s more violent than you could ever imagine.”
Injuries are evident from the video above, including a bleeding foot and a bloody nose, but this is because the game mixes some of the worst elements of both rubgy and handball.
But do the intrepid players care about that? Of course not, they love the sport and apparently have been traveling around playing other teams in Europe. As can also be seen in the video, some of the players even have special tattoos in homage to the new “beautiful game.”
#spain Madrid’s muggles go crazy for wizard sport Quidditch: Widely played across the pond, is the wizarding s… http://t.co/8RZ3xpy53L
— Spanish News (@newsspain) February 26, 2015
As can be seen, both guys and girls can get involved in the game and apparently sometimes this spawns a little romance, which Blake says they tend to call a “quidditch crush.”
According to the Olive Press, the game of “muggle quidditch,” to give it its full title, was reportedly first played in Vermont back in 2005. Apparently, there is even an International Quidditch Association, but they say the game hasn’t quite made it to the Olympics yet. Again, we should probably “give it time.”
Earlier in February, the Madrid Lynx played another quidditch team, “Dementores de A Coruña,” and a video of the game is included below. Do you think Lionel Messi and Co. have got anything to worry about with the advent of this new “beautiful game” in Spain?
Image: Screengrab from YouTube video]
