by Andrea Hill | November 23rd, 2011
Look out Aussies — Australia’s first-ever quidditch tournament is happening in Sydney this weekend.
The Quidditch Universities of Australia Federation League Cup – or QUAFL Cup for short — is taking over the Physics Lawn at University of New South Wales on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Five teams from across the nation are competing to be Australia’s first quidditch champion and more than one hundred fans are expected to show despite a forecast for rain.
The competing teams include Australian National University (Canberra), University of Wollongong (Wollongong), University of Newcastle (Newcastle), University of Western Sydney (Sydney) and host University of New South Wales (Sydney).
It may be a small tournament, but it is a milestone for quidditch in Australia and has the potential to help make the sport even larger in the country.
If successful, the tournament may become an annual event, said Morgyn Benstead, treasurer of the ANU team and one of the tournament organizers. With quidditch gaining popularity in the land down under, the tournament could even become a means of selecting the very best players and teams to represent the nation in upcoming world cups.
Already, ANU and Wollongong are planning to send players to the 2013 Quidditch World Cup, likely to be held in the U.S. in the fall or spring pending decisions by the IQA’s World Cup planning committee.
Justin Chau
November 23, 2011
11:10 pm
Event details here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=252323748149377
First games at 9:30am. Casual spectators are welcome to play during lunch and afternoon breaks.
Nicole Denney
November 24, 2011
5:15 pm
Hello, I am the current president of the university of Kansas quidditch team. But I am actually going to be studying abroad in Newcastle next year. How can I get involved next semester when I am there? I’d love to play quiddtch while I’m there!
Nicole Denney
November 24, 2011
5:17 pm
Wow my post was redundant…. Regardless, does Newcastle quidditch have a Facebook page or anything?
Justin Chau
November 25, 2011
2:26 pm
Dear Nicole, Newcastle does
http://www.facebook.com/NewcastleQS
Matt Hudson
November 26, 2011
11:17 pm
You’ll be in Newcastle? We’ll have a stall set up during O-week in the Brennan Room (don’t worry, you’ll know where I’m talking about). I should be there for most O-week if you want to drop in for a chat.