Quidditch Through The Ages Part 1

Quidditch Through the Ages.

by J. K. Rowling.

Foreword.

QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES is one of the most popular t.i.tles in the Hogwarts school library. Madam Pince, our librarian, tells me that it is "pawed about, dribbled on, and generally maltreated" nearly every day a high compliment for any book. Anyone who plays or watches Quidditch regularly will relish Mr. Whisp's book, as do those of us interested in wider wizarding history. As we have developed the game of Quidditch, so it has developed us; Quidditch unites witches and wizards from all walks of life, bringing us together to share moments of exhilaration, triumph, and (for those who support the Chudley Cannons) despair. is one of the most popular t.i.tles in the Hogwarts school library. Madam Pince, our librarian, tells me that it is "pawed about, dribbled on, and generally maltreated" nearly every day a high compliment for any book. Anyone who plays or watches Quidditch regularly will relish Mr. Whisp's book, as do those of us interested in wider wizarding history. As we have developed the game of Quidditch, so it has developed us; Quidditch unites witches and wizards from all walks of life, bringing us together to share moments of exhilaration, triumph, and (for those who support the Chudley Cannons) despair.

It was with some difficulty, I must own, that I persuaded Madam Pince to part with one of her books so that it might be copied for wider consumption. Indeed, when I told her it was to be made available to Muggles, she was rendered temporarily speechless, and neither moved nor blinked for several minutes. When she came to herself she was thoughtful enough to ask whether I had taken leave of my senses. I was pleased to rea.s.sure her on that point and went on to explain why I had taken this unprecedented decision.

Muggle readers will need no introduction to the work of Comic Relief U. K. (which, funnily enough, has nothing to do with the American organization of the same name), so I now repeat my explanation to Madam Pince for the benefit of witches and wizards who have purchased this book. Comic Relief U. K. uses laughter to fight poverty, injustice, and disaster. Widespread amus.e.m.e.nt is converted into large quant.i.ties of money (over 250 million dollars since they started in 1985 which is the equivalent of over 174 million pounds or thirty-four million Galleons).

Everyone involved in getting this book to you, from the author to the publisher to the paper suppliers, printers, binders, and booksellers, contributed their time, energy, and materials free or at a reduced cost, making it possible for twenty percent of the retail sales price less taxes from the sale of this book to go to a fund set up in Harry Potter's name by Comic Relief U. K. and J. K. Rowling. This fund was designed specifically to help children in need throughout the world. By buying this book and I would advise you to buy it, because if you read it too long without handing over money you will find yourself the object of a Thief's Curse you too will be contributing to this magical mission.

I would be deceiving my readers if I said that this explanation made Madam Pince happy about handing over a library book to Muggles. She suggested several alternatives, such as telling the people from Comic Relief U. K. that the library had burned down, or simply pretending that I had dropped dead without leaving instructions. When I told her that on the whole I preferred my original plan, she reluctantly agreed to hand over the book, though at the point when it came to let go of it, her nerve failed her and I was forced to prise her fingers individually from the spine.

Though I have removed the usual library book spells from this volume, I cannot promise that every trace has gone. Madam Pince has been known to add unusual jinxes to the books in her care. I myself doodled absentmindedly on a copy of Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration last year and next moment found the book beating me fiercely about the head. Please be careful how you treat this book. Do not rip out the pages. Do not drop it in the bath. I cannot promise that Madam Pince will not swoop down on you, wherever you are, and demand a heavy fine. last year and next moment found the book beating me fiercely about the head. Please be careful how you treat this book. Do not rip out the pages. Do not drop it in the bath. I cannot promise that Madam Pince will not swoop down on you, wherever you are, and demand a heavy fine.

All that remains is for me to thank you for supporting Comic Relief U. K. and to beg Muggles not to try playing Quidditch at home; it is, of course, an entirely fictional sport and n.o.body really plays it. May I also take this opportunity to wish Puddlemere United the best of luck next season.

Chapter One.

The Evolution of the Flying Broomstick.

No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form. Those few Animagi who transform into winged creatures may enjoy flight, but they are a rarity. The witch or wizard who finds him- or herself transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having a bat's brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the moment they take flight. Levitation is commonplace, but our ancestors were not content with hovering five feet from the ground. They wanted more. They wanted to fly like birds, but without the inconvenience of growing feathers.

We are so accustomed these days to the fact that every wizarding household in Britain owns at least one flying broomstick that we rarely stop to ask ourselves why. Why should the humble broom have become the one object legally allowed as a means of wizarding transport? Why did we in the West not adopt the carpet so beloved of our Eastern brethren? Why didn't we choose to produce flying barrels, flying armchairs, flying bathtubs why brooms?

Shrewd enough to see that their Muggle neighbours would seek to exploit their powers if they knew their full extent, witches and wizards kept themselves to themselves long before the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy came into effect. If they were to keep a means of flight in their houses, it would necessarily be something discreet, something easy to hide. The broomstick was ideal for this purpose; it required no explanation, no excuse if found by Muggles, it was easily portable and inexpensive. Nevertheless, the first brooms bewitched for flying purposes had their drawbacks.

Records show that witches and wizards in Europe were using flying broomsticks as early as A.D. 962. A German illuminated ma.n.u.script of this period shows three warlocks dismounting from their brooms with looks of exquisite discomfort on their faces. Guthrie Lochrin, a Scottish wizard writing in 1107, spoke of the "splinterfilled b.u.t.tocks and bulging piles" he suffered after a short broom ride from Montrose to Arbroath.

A medieval broomstick on display in the Museum of Quidditch in London gives us an insight into Lochrin's discomfort (see Fig. A). A thick knotty handle of unvarnished ash, with hazel twigs bound crudely to one end, it is neither comfortable nor aerodynamic. The charms placed upon it are similarly basic: It will only move forwards at one speed; it will go up, down, and stop.

As wizarding families in those days made their own brooms, there was enormous variation in the speed, comfort, and handling of the transport available to them. By the twelfth century, however, wizards had learned to barter services, so that a skilled maker of brooms could exchange them for the potions his neighbour might make better than himself. Once broomsticks became more comfortable, they were flown for pleasure rather than merely used as a means of getting from point A to point B.

Chapter Two.

Ancient Broom Games.

Broom sports emerged almost as soon as broomsticks were sufficiently advanced to allow fliers to turn corners and vary their speed and height. Early wizarding writings and paintings give us some idea of the games our ancestors played. Some of these no longer exist; others have survived or evolved into the sports we know today. The celebrated annual broom race annual broom race of Sweden dates from the tenth century. Fliers race from Kopparberg to Arjeplog, a distance of slightly over three hundred miles. The course runs straight through a dragon reservation, and the vast silver trophy is shaped like a Swedish Short-Snout. Nowadays this is an international event and wizards of all nationalities congregate at Kopparberg to cheer the starters, then Apparate to Arjeplog to congratulate the survivors. of Sweden dates from the tenth century. Fliers race from Kopparberg to Arjeplog, a distance of slightly over three hundred miles. The course runs straight through a dragon reservation, and the vast silver trophy is shaped like a Swedish Short-Snout. Nowadays this is an international event and wizards of all nationalities congregate at Kopparberg to cheer the starters, then Apparate to Arjeplog to congratulate the survivors.

The famous painting Gunther der Gewalttatige ist der Gewinner Gunther der Gewalttatige ist der Gewinner ("Gunther the Violent Is the Winner"), dated 1105, shows the ancient German game of ("Gunther the Violent Is the Winner"), dated 1105, shows the ancient German game of Stichstock. Stichstock. A twenty-foot-high pole was topped with an inflated dragon bladder. One player on a broomstick had the job of protecting this bladder. The bladder-guardian was tied to the pole by a rope around his or her waist, so that he or she could not fly further than ten feet away from it. The rest of the players would take it in turns to fly at the bladder and attempt to puncture it with the specially sharpened ends of their brooms. The bladder-guardian was allowed to use his or her wand to repel these attacks. The game ended when the bladder was successfully punctured, or the bladder-guardian had either succeeded in hexing all opponents out of the running or collapsed from exhaustion. Stichstock died out in the fourteenth century. A twenty-foot-high pole was topped with an inflated dragon bladder. One player on a broomstick had the job of protecting this bladder. The bladder-guardian was tied to the pole by a rope around his or her waist, so that he or she could not fly further than ten feet away from it. The rest of the players would take it in turns to fly at the bladder and attempt to puncture it with the specially sharpened ends of their brooms. The bladder-guardian was allowed to use his or her wand to repel these attacks. The game ended when the bladder was successfully punctured, or the bladder-guardian had either succeeded in hexing all opponents out of the running or collapsed from exhaustion. Stichstock died out in the fourteenth century.

In Ireland the game of Aingingein Aingingein flourished, the subject of many an Irish ballad (the legendary wizard Fingal the Fearless is alleged to have been an Aingingein champion). One by one the players would take the Dom, or ball (actually the gallbladder of a goat), and speed through a series of burning barrels set high in the air on stilts. The Dom was to be thrown through the final barrel. The player who succeeded in getting the Dom through the last barrel in the fastest time, without having caught fire on the way, was the winner. flourished, the subject of many an Irish ballad (the legendary wizard Fingal the Fearless is alleged to have been an Aingingein champion). One by one the players would take the Dom, or ball (actually the gallbladder of a goat), and speed through a series of burning barrels set high in the air on stilts. The Dom was to be thrown through the final barrel. The player who succeeded in getting the Dom through the last barrel in the fastest time, without having caught fire on the way, was the winner.

Scotland was the birthplace of what is probably the most dangerous of all broom games Creaothceann. Creaothceann. The game features in a tragic Gaelic poem of the eleventh century, the first verse of which says, in translation: The game features in a tragic Gaelic poem of the eleventh century, the first verse of which says, in translation: The players a.s.sembled, twelve fine, hearty men, They strapped on their cauldrons, stood poised to fly, At the sound of the horn they were swiftly airborne But ten of their number were fated to die.

Creaothceann players each wore a cauldron strapped to the head. At the sound of the horn or drum, up to a hundred charmed rocks and boulders that had been hovering a hundred feet above the ground began to fall towards the earth. The Creaothceann players zoomed around trying to catch as many rocks as possible in their cauldrons. Considered by many Scottish wizards to be the supreme test of manliness and courage, Creaothceann enjoyed considerable popularity in the Middle Ages, despite the huge number of fatalities that resulted from it.

The game was made illegal in 1762, and though Magnus "Dent-Head" Macdonald spearheaded a campaign for its reintroduction in the 1960s, the Ministry of Magic refused to lift the ban.

Shuntb.u.mps was popular in Devon, England. This was a crude form of jousting, the sole aim being to knock as many other players as possible off their brooms, the last person remaining on their broom winning. was popular in Devon, England. This was a crude form of jousting, the sole aim being to knock as many other players as possible off their brooms, the last person remaining on their broom winning.

Swivenhodge began in Herefords.h.i.+re. Like Stichstock, this involved an inflated bladder, usually a pig's. Players sat backwards on their brooms and batted the bladder backwards and forwards across a hedge with the brush ends of their brooms. The first person to miss gave their opponent a point. First to reach fifty points was the winner. began in Herefords.h.i.+re. Like Stichstock, this involved an inflated bladder, usually a pig's. Players sat backwards on their brooms and batted the bladder backwards and forwards across a hedge with the brush ends of their brooms. The first person to miss gave their opponent a point. First to reach fifty points was the winner.

Swivenhodge is still played in England, though it has never achieved much widespread popularity; Shuntb.u.mps survives only as a children's game. At Queerditch Marsh, however, a game had been created that would one day become the most popular in the wizarding world.

Chapter Three.

The Game from Queerditch Marsh.

We owe our knowledge of the rude beginnings of Quidditch to the writings of the witch Gertie Keddle, who lived on the edge of Queerditch Marsh in the eleventh century. Fortunately for us, she kept a diary, now in the Museum of Quidditch in London. The excerpts below have been translated from the badly spelled Saxon of the original.

Tuesday. Hot. That lot from across the marsh have been at it again. Playing a stupid game on their broomsticks. A big leather ball landed in my cabbages. I hexed the man who came for it. I'd like to see him fly with his knees on back to front, the great hairy hog.

Tuesday. Wet. Was out on the marsh picking nettles. Broomstick idiots playing again. Watched for a bit from behind a rock. They've got a new ball. Throwing it to each other and trying to stick it in trees at either end of the marsh. Pointless rubbish.

Tuesday. Windy. Gwenog came for nettle tea, then invited me out for a treat. Ended up watching those numbskulls playing their game on the marsh. That big Scottish warlock from up the hill was there. Now they've got two big, heavy rocks flying around trying to knock them all off their brooms. Unfortunately didn't happen while I was watching. Gwenog told me she often played herself. Went home in disgust.

These extracts reveal much more than Gertie Keddle could have guessed, quite apart from the fact that she only knew the name of one of the days of the week. Firstly, the ball that landed in her cabbage patch was made of leather, as is the modern Quaffle naturally, the inflated bladder used in other broom games of the period would be difficult to throw accurately, particularly in windy conditions. Secondly, Gertie tells us that the men were "trying to stick it in trees at either end of the marsh" apparently an early form of goal-scoring. Thirdly, she gives us a glimpse of the forerunners of Bludgers. It is immensely interesting that there was a "big Scottish warlock" present. Could he have been a Creaothceann player? Was it his idea to bewitch heavy rocks to zoom dangerously around the pitch, inspired by the boulders used in his native game?

We find no further mention of the sport played on Queerditch Marsh until a century later, when the wizard Goodwin Kneen took up his quill to write to his Norwegian cousin Olaf. Kneen lived in Yorks.h.i.+re, which demonstrates the spread of the sport throughout Britain in the hundred years after Gertie Keddle first witnessed it. Kneen's letter is deposited in the archives of the Norwegian Ministry of Magic.

Dear Olaf, How are you? I am well, though Gunhilda had got a touch of dragon pox. We enjoyed a spirited game of Kwidditch last Sat.u.r.day night, though poor Gunhilda was not up to playing Catcher, and we had to use Radulf the blacksmith instead. The team from Ilkley played well though was no match for us, for we had been practising hard all month and scored forty-two times. Radulf got a Blooder in the head because old Ugga wasn't quick enough with his club. The new scoring barrels worked well. Three at each end on stilts, Oona from the inn gave us them. She let us have free mead all night because we won as well. Gunhilda was a bit angry I got back so late. I had to duck a couple of nasty jinxes but I've got my fingers back now.

I'm sending this with the best owl I've got, hope he makes it.

Your cousin, Goodwin Here we see how far the game has progressed in a century. Goodwin's wife was to have played "Catcher" probably the old term for Chaser. The "Blooder" (undoubtedly Bludger) that hit Radulf the blacksmith should have been fended off by Ugga, who was obviously playing Beater, as he was carrying a club. The goals are no longer trees, but barrels on stilts. One crucial element in the game was still missing, however: the Golden Snitch The addition of the fourth Quidditch ball did not occur until the middle of the thirteenth century and it came about in a curious manner.

Chapter Four.

The Arrival of the Golden Snitch.

From the early 1100s, Snidget-hunting had been popular among many witches and wizards. The Golden Snidget (see Fig. B) is today a protected species, but at that time Golden Snidgets were common in northern Europe, though difficult to detect by Muggles because of their apt.i.tude at hiding and their very great speed.

The diminutive size of the Snidget, coupled with its remarkable agility in the air and talent at avoiding predators, merely added to the prestige of wizards who caught them. A twelfth-century tapestry preserved in the Museum of Quidditch shows a group setting out to catch a Snidget. In the first portion of the tapestry, some hunters carry nets, others use wands, and still others attempt to catch the Snidget with their bare hands. The tapestry reveals the fact that the Snidget was often crushed by its captor. In the final portion of the tapestry we see the wizard who caught the Snidget being presented with a bag of gold.

Snidget-hunting was reprehensible in many ways. Every right-minded wizard must deplore the destruction of these peace-loving little birds in the name of sport. Moreover, Snidget-hunting, which was usually undertaken in broad daylight, led to more Muggle broomstick sightings than any other pursuit. The Wizards' Council of the time, however, was unable to curb the sport's popularity indeed, it appears that the Council itself saw little wrong with it, as we shall see.

Snidget-hunting finally crossed paths with Quidditch in 1269 at a game attended by the Chief of the Wizards' Council himself, Barberus Bragge. We know this because of the eyewitness account sent by Madam Modesty Rabnott of Kent to her sister Prudence in Aberdeen (this letter is also on display in the Museum of Quidditch). According to Madam Rabnott, Bragge brought a caged Snidget to the match and told the a.s.sembled players that he would award one hundred and fifty Galleons [NOTE: Equivalent to over a million Galleons today. Whether Chief Bragge intended to pay or not is a moot point.] to the player who caught it during the course of the game. Madam Rabnott explains what happened next: Equivalent to over a million Galleons today. Whether Chief Bragge intended to pay or not is a moot point.] to the player who caught it during the course of the game. Madam Rabnott explains what happened next:

The players rose as one into the air, ignoring the Quaffle and dodging the Blooders. Both Keepers abandoned the goal baskets and joined the hunt. The poor little Snidget shot up and down the pitch seeking a means of escape, but the wizards in the crowd forced it back with Repelling Spells. Well, Pru, you know how I am about Snidget-hunting and what I get like when my temper goes. I ran onto the pitch and screamed, "Chief Bragge, this is not sport! Let the Snidget go free and let us watch the n.o.ble game of Cuaditch which we have all come to see!" If you'll believe me. Pru, all the brute did was laugh and throw the empty birdcage at me. Well, I saw red, Pru, I really did. When the poor little Snidget flew My way I did a Summoning Charm. You know how good my Summoning Charms are, Pru of course it was easier for me to aim properly, not being mounted on a broomstick at the time. The little bird came zooming into my hand. I stuffed it down the front of my robes and ran like fury. Well, they caught me, but not before I'd got out of the crowds and released the Snidget. Chief Bragge was very angry and for a moment I thought I'd end up a horned toad, or worse, but luckily his advisors calmed him down and I was only fined ten Galleons for disrupting the game. Of course I've never had ten Galleons in my life, so that's the old home gone. I'll be coming to live with you shortly, luckily they didn't take the Hippogriff. And I'll tell you this, Pru, Chief Bragge would have lost my vote if I'd had one.

Your loving sister, Modesty Madam Rabnott's brave action might have saved one Snidget, but she could not save them all. Chief Bragge's idea had forever changed the nature of Quidditch. Golden Snidgets were soon being released during all Quidditch games, one player on each team (the Hunter) having the sole task of catching it. When the bird was killed, the game was over and the Hunter's team was awarded an extra one hundred and fifty points, in memory of the one hundred and fifty Galleons promised by Chief Bragge. The crowd undertook to keep the Snidget on the pitch by using the Repelling Spells mentioned by Madam Rabnott.

By the middle of the following century, however, Golden Snidget numbers had fallen so low that the Wizards' Council, now headed by the considerably more enlightened Elfrida Clagg, made the Golden Snidget a protected species, outlawing both its killing and its use in Quidditch games. The Modesty Rabnott Snidget Reservation was founded in Somerset and a subst.i.tute for the bird was frantically sought to enable the game of Quidditch to proceed.

The invention of the Golden Snitch is credited to the wizard Bowman Wright of G.o.dric's Hollow. While Quidditch teams all over the country tried to find bird subst.i.tutes for the Snidget, Wright, who was a skilled metal-charmer, set himself to the task of creating a ball that mimicked the behaviour and flight patterns of the Snidget. That he succeeded perfectly is clear from the many rolls of parchment he left behind him on his death (now in the possession of a private collector), listing the orders that he had received from all over the country. The Golden Snitch, as Bowman called his invention, was a walnut-sized ball exactly the weight of a Snidget. Its silvery wings had rotational joints like the Snidget's, enabling it to change direction with the lightning speed and precision of its living model. Unlike the Snidget, however, the Snitch had been bewitched to remain within the boundaries of the field. The introduction of the Golden Snitch may be said to have finished the process begun three hundred years before on Queerditch Marsh. Quidditch had been truly born.

Chapter Five.

Anti-Muggle Precautions.

In 1398 the wizard Zacharias Mumps set down the first full description of the game of Quidditch. He began by emphasising the need for anti-Muggle security while playing the game: "Choose areas of deserted moorland far from Muggle habitations and make sure that you cannot be seen once you take off on your brooms. Muggle-Repelling Charms are useful if you are setting up a permanent pitch. It is advisable, too, to play at night."

We deduce that Mumps's excellent advice was not always followed from the fact that the Wizards' Council outlawed all Quidditch-playing within fifty miles of towns in 1362. Clearly the popularity of the game was increasing rapidly, for the Council found it necessary to amend the ban in 1368, making it illegal to play within a hundred miles of a town. In 1419, the Council issued the famously worded decree that Quidditch should not be played "anywhere near any place where there is the slightest chance that a Muggle might be watching or we'll see how well you can play whilst chained to a dungeon wall."

As every school-age wizard knows, the fact that we fly on broomsticks is probably our worst-kept secret. No Muggle ill.u.s.tration of a witch is complete without a broom and however ludicrous these drawings are (for none of the broomsticks depicted by Muggles could stay up in the air for a moment), they remind us that we were careless for too many centuries to be surprised that broomsticks and magic are inextricably linked in the Muggle mind.

Adequate security measures were not enforced until the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy of 1692 made every Ministry of Magic directly responsible for the consequences of magical sports played within their territories. This subsequently led, in Britain, to the formation of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Quidditch teams that flouted the Ministry guidelines were henceforth forced to disband. The most famous instance of this was the Banchory Bangers, a Scottish team renowned not only for their poor Quidditch skills but also for their post-match parties. After their 1814 match against the Appleby Arrows (see Chapter Seven), the Bangers not only allowed their Bludgers to zoom away into the night, but also set out to capture a Hebridean Black for their team mascot. Ministry of Magic representatives apprehended them as they were flying over Inverness and the Banchory Bangers never played again.

Nowadays Quidditch teams do not play locally, but travel to pitches, which have been set up by the Department of Magical Games and Sports where adequate anti-Muggle security is maintained. As Zacharias Mumps so rightly suggested six hundred years ago, Quidditch pitches are safest on deserted moors.

Chapter Six.

Changes in Quidditch since the Fourteenth Century Pitch.

Zacharias Mumps describes the fourteenth-century pitch as oval-shaped, five hundred feet long, and a hundred and eighty feet wide with a small central circle (approximately two feet in diameter) in the middle. Mumps tells us that the referee (or Quijudge, as he or she was then known), carried the four b.a.l.l.s into this central circle while the fourteen players stood around him. The moment the b.a.l.l.s were released (the Quaffle was thrown by the referee; see "Quaffle" below), the players raced into the air. The goalposts in Mumps's time were still large baskets on poles, as seen in Fig. C.

In 1620 Quintius Umfraville wrote a book called The n.o.ble Sport of Warlocks, The n.o.ble Sport of Warlocks, which included a diagram of the seventeenth-century pitch (see Fig. D). Here we see the addition of what we know as "scoring areas" (see "Rules" below). The baskets on top of the goalposts were considerably smaller and higher than in Mumps's time. which included a diagram of the seventeenth-century pitch (see Fig. D). Here we see the addition of what we know as "scoring areas" (see "Rules" below). The baskets on top of the goalposts were considerably smaller and higher than in Mumps's time.

By 1883 baskets had ceased to be used for scoring and were replaced with the goalposts we use today, an innovation reported in the Daily Prophet Daily Prophet of the time (see below). The Quidditch pitch has not altered since that time. of the time (see below). The Quidditch pitch has not altered since that time.

Bring Back Our Baskets!

That was the cry heard from Quidditch players across the nation last night as it became clear that the Department of Magical Games and Sports had decided to burn the baskets used for centuries for goalscoring in Quidditch.

"We're not burning them, don't exaggerate," said an irritable-looking Departmental representative last night when asked to comment. "Baskets, as you may have noticed, come in different sizes. We have found it impossible to standardize basket size so as to make goalposts throughout Britain equal. Surely you can see it's a matter of fairness. I mean, there's a team up near Barnton, they've got these minuscule little baskets attached to the opposing team's posts, you couldn't get a grape in them. And up their own end they've got these great wicker caves swinging around. It's not on. We've settled on a fixed hoop size and that's it. Everything nice and fair."

At this point, the Departmental representative was forced to retreat under a hail of baskets thrown by the angry demonstrators a.s.sembled in the hall. Although the ensuing riot was later blamed on goblin agitators, there can be no doubt that Quidditch fans across Britain are tonight mourning the end of the game as we know it.

" 'T won't be t' same wi'out baskets," said one apple-cheeked old wizard sadly. "I remember when I were a lad, we used to set fire to 'em for a laugh during t' match. You can't do that with goal hoops. 'Alf t' fun's gone."

Daily Prophet, 12 February 1883 12 February 1883 b.a.l.l.s The Quaffle.

As we know from Gertie Keddle's diary, the Quaffle was from earliest times made of leather. Alone of the four Quidditch b.a.l.l.s, the Quaffle was not originally enchanted, but merely a patched leather ball, often with a strap (see Fig. E), as it had to be caught and thrown one-handed. Some old Quaffles have finger holes. With the discovery of Gripping Charms in 1875, however, straps and finger holes have become unnecessary, as the Chaser is able to keep a one-handed hold on the charmed leather without such aids.

The modern Quaffle is twelve inches in diameter and seamless. It was first coloured scarlet in the winter of 1711, after a game when heavy rain had made it indistinguishable from the muddy ground whenever it was dropped. Chasers were also becoming increasingly irritated by the necessity of diving continually towards the ground to retrieve the Quaffle whenever they missed a catch and so, shortly after the Quaffle's change of colour, the witch Daisy Pennifold had the idea of bewitching the Quaffle so that if dropped, it would fall slowly earthwards as though sinking through water, meaning that Chasers could grab it in mid-air. The "Pennifold Quaffle" is still used today.

The Bludgers.

The first Bludgers (or "Blooders") were, as we have seen, flying rocks, and in Mumps's time they had merely progressed to rocks carved into the shape of b.a.l.l.s. These had one important disadvantage, however: They could be cracked by the magically reinforced Beaters' bats of the fifteenth century, in which case all players would be pursued by flying gravel for the remainder of the game.