Flying Lesson 3 Year 1 : Ancient Broom Games

Ancient Broom Games - Another Interesting Lecture

Introduction

Hello, Hello and welcome back to your Flying Class. Today, we would be going about a topic that will interest you, which are Ancient Broom Games. Are you ready for the adventure? I promise it won't be as boring as it sounds.

Some of the sports I teach may longer exist, and the reason for them might be anything, and I will mention the reason clearly in the lesson, and you need to pay attention. If you did not understand a part of the lesson, or a term, please do owl me on my profile here.

Most of the sports that we will be learning today will be ancient, and not modern, though I could cover some of the modern sports as well.

Now, broom sports were invented very soon after the brooms came into existence in England. Ancient paintings and drawings of magical people gave us an approximation about games played using brooms in ancient times.

The most popular annual broom race of Sweden dates from the 10th century. Fliers race from Kopparberg to Arjeplog, a distance of slightly over three hundred miles.

The race exactly runs through a dragon reservation and the vast silver trophy is shaped like a Swedish short snout. They often apparate to these places to view the game and cheer the players up.

Next, we come to the ancient game originating from Germany, known as Stichstock. It was known to have originated in the year of 1105, from the painting of Günther der Gewaltig ist der Gewinner, which literally translates to 'Gunther the Violent is the Winner'.

With a dragon bladder which is inflated, a twenty foot poll was topped. A player was given the job of protecting the bladder in the poll. A rope was tied on the player's waist, so he/she could not fly more than ten feet away from the poll.

What about the rest of the players is, they would take turns to puncture the dragon bladder, with their special sharp tips of their brooms. If a player succeeds in puncturing the bladder, the players on the other side will win.

The person who guards the bladder is allowed to use their wands, and if every player was hexed, then the guardian won. The game of Stichstock was not played after the 14th century.

Now we come to the game of Aingingein, which originated in Ireland.

In there, there would be a ball, called the Dom, which was the gallbladder of a goat. Turn by turn, the players would take a chance to hold and speed through the air from the burning barrels, and throw the Dom in the last barrel. If the player succeeds in doing it first, without getting fired, was the winner of the game. Fingal the Fearless was a top champion of the game of Aingingein.

Now, we come to the most dangerous game of brooms ever, which originated in Scotland, namely Creaothceann.

The game required twelve men, who wore cauldrons strapped on their heads. When the horn/drum made a slightest sense of sound, hundred charmed rocks and boulders fell down from a hundred feet. The players, poor people, tried to catch as many rocks as possible in their small cauldrons tied to their head. Ten or more people were fated to die in the game. Finally, in the year 1762, the game of Creaothceann was made illegal.

Another small game called Shuntbumps was popular in Devon, England. The aim of the players was to knock out as many players as possible from their brooms, as for the last player on the broom would win.

A game known as Swivenhodge began in the town of Herefordshire. It involved an inflated bladder, and it would usually be a pig. Players sat backwards on their brooms and batted the bladder backwards and forwards across a hedge with brush ends of their brooms. The first person to miss gave their opponent a point. First to reach fifty points was the winner.

After all of those, the most popular game, Quidditch was supremer to the others, of course. But, there is one more modern broom sport, namely Quadpots, popular in North America.

In one team, there are eleven players. The main goal for those players is to pass the quad from one to another, and their final task is to throw the quad in the pot at the end.

You all might be thinking that this is so easy, but the challenge comes here. The quad explodes, but not if it is inside the pot. This is not played much in Britain. In North America, Quidditch is too played. Quadpots was brought by a man called Abraham Peasegood.

Now, the time is up, so closing the class. Meet you next week. I hope you all had fun in today's class, learning about the past! Class concluded.