By J.B. Nicholas
Volume 80, Number 27 | December 2 – 8, 2010
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
Muggles on brooms mix it up at Quidditch World Cup
The Quidditch World Cup IV was held last month in DeWitt Clinton Park in Hell’s Kitchen, but no doubt legions of Downtown Harry Potter fans would have been interested in watching the games, if not playing in them. According to the organizers’ Web site, muggle quidditch (“muggle” meaning “nonmagical” in Potter-speak) or ground quidditch, as it’s known, began in 2005 as an intramural league at Middlebury College in Vermont. The rules were adapted from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels by Alexander Manshel, the first quidditch commissioner. In 2006, Alex Benepe took over as the Middlebury commissioner and, in 2007, founded the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association. The first intercollegiate quidditch match, between Middlebury and Vassar colleges, was on Nov. 11, 2007. The I.Q.A. has since helped students from more than 400 colleges and 300 high schools form teams, with over half of these currently active.
