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Chapter Two

Ancient Broom Games

Brooed 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 soaer exist; others have survived or evolved into the sports we know today

The celebrated annual broom race of Sweden dates fro, a distance of slightly over three hundred on 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 fa ist der Gewinner (‘Gunther the Violent is the Winner’), dated 1105, shows the ancient Gerh pole was topped with an inflated dragon bladder One player on a broouardian 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 broouardian 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 gaein flourished, the subject of al the Fearless is alleged to have been an Aingingein champion) One by one the players would take the Dooat), and speed through a series of burning barrels set high in the air on stilts The Doh the final

barrel The player who succeeded in getting the Do caught fire on the as the winner

Scotland was the birthplace of what is probably the aic Gaelic poem of the eleventh century, the first verse of which says, in translation:

The players assembled, 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 char a hundred feet above the ground began to fall towards the earth The Creaothceann players zoo to catch as many rocks as possible in their cauldrons Considered by many Scottish wizards to be the supree, Creaothceann enjoyed considerable popularity in the Middle Ages, despite the huge nuanus ‘Dent-Head’ Macdonald spearheaded a can for its reintroduction in the 1960s, the Ministry of Magic refused to lift the ban

Shuntbuland This was a crude for to knock as many other players as possible off their broo

Swivenhodge began in Herefordshire Like Stichstock, this involved an inflated bladder, usually a pig’s Players sat backwards on their brooe with the brush ends of their brooave their opponent a point First to reach fifty points was the winner