Saturday, July 09, 2011

Quidditch Croquet Rules!

On Tuesday I'm going down to Florida for LeakyCon 2011, and I am PSYCHED . . . to speak at Lit Day, to see the Wizarding World theme park for the first time, to party with Harry Potter fans, and because my hotel has a croquet court! (For the reason I'm obsessed with croquet, hit the "Frog" label on the right.) This obviously requires a game of Quidditch Croquet, which in turn requires the establishment of rules for Quidditch Croquet; and I propose the following for discussion/comment:

  1. Play shall generally proceed as in a standard croquet game, with the wickets in a figure-eight configuration, and in order of the colors on the post; but with the following exceptions:
  2. The black ball shall be the Bludger, and the yellow ball shall be the Snitch.
  3. Neither the Bludger nor the Snitch can play until all other balls have passed through the opening two wickets.
  4. -- The Snitch shall go first, and the Bludger second.  
  5. -- They should both start at the opposite post from the rest of the players. 
  6. The Bludger does not have to follow the standard course and try to go through wickets, but rather should spend its time trying to knock all the other balls (besides the Snitch) as far off course as possible.
  7. -- If the Bludger touches another ball (a roquet), it gets only one additional hit, instead of the standard two.
  8. ---- If necessary, an additional limitation can be imposed on the Bludger, that the player controlling it must play one-handed and/or with his/her less dominant hand.)
  9. -- If another ball (besides the Snitch) touches the Bludger, it gets three additional hits, instead of the standard two.  
  10. The Snitch also does not have to follow the standard course and try to go through wickets, but rather should travel consistently up and down the midline of the course, from post to post through the center wicket. 
  11. The Snitch does not want to strike or be struck by the other balls.
  12. -- If another ball (besides the Bludger) touches the Snitch, it gets four additional hits, instead of the standard two. 
  13. -- The Bludger is not allowed to hit the Snitch, and if it does, its turn is over and it misses its next turn.
  14. The game concludes when a player successfully completes the course, passing through all nine wickets and touching both posts (the opening post twice, at the beginning and end); 
  15. -- OR when the Bludger has knocked into all the active balls (besides the Snitch) twice (a scorecard may be useful here) and reached the closing post before anyone else; 
  16. -- OR when the Snitch has successfully completed thirteen post-to-post-through-the-center-wicket crossings of the court, including at least three where it was not struck by any other ball (ditto on the scorecard), and reached the closing post before anyone else. 
This allows the Bludger and Snitch to behave as they do in Quidditch, but gives all players an incentive to win. (I chose thirteen post-to-post perambulations for the Snitch because it would take a long time to reach,  I hope, and thirteen is a good wizarding number.)

Thoughts? Suggestions? And if you're going to LeakyCon -- who's in?

11 comments:

  1. WOW! We play croquet regularly at our summer picnics and we are all passionate about Harry Potter (tickets in hand already) so we will have to give this a try at next week's picnic! Of course, now all the kids will be fighting over who will be the Bludger and who will be the Snitch. :) Fun fun fun!!!

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  2. To raise the stakes, I think each player should also be armed with three water balloon Bludgers.

    Heading to Universal Orlando in November... anxious to hear your report.

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  3. That sounds fabulous. I'll have to remember your rules for the next time I play croquet. :)

    (And right now--how could anyone NOT be in a Harry Potter frame of mind?)

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  4. Cheryl, this sounds like a fun version of Croquet!! I live in Alaska where we have 24 hours of daylight in the summer. Last night I played croquet with friends until 2 a.m.

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  5. Janet Costa BatesJuly 11, 2011 4:16 PM

    Cheryl, In case you're interested, I'm sharing an article I just read featuring LeakyCon 2011 speaker Vera Lee. Her book, "On the Trail of Harry Potter," examines "all seven volumes from a literary perspective."

    http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/arts/x1850042843/Much-ado-about-Harry-in-Newton-authors-book

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  6. Hi Cheryl, I've just found your blog and I will be attending Lit Day at LeakyCon. I'm wondering if you will be selling your book there? I've been to every bookstore in my area and none of them seem to have it in stock. I would very much like to get my hands on it, so I do hope you'll be selling copies at the conference. :)

    Krissi

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  7. Greetings :)
    When you see the movie, perhaps give a rating? Oh and I was looking at Goodreads and I happened to see you gave Goblet of Fire a poor rating? Why is that, out of curiousity?
    Attending Lit Day as well =)

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  8. Hi Cheryl,
    I'm wondering about your book. During the Kickstart campaing, I contributed $50, which, if I remember correctly, meant I got a copy of the book, but I've yet to receive one. I also, won, long ago, on this blog a "worst sentece" contest in which the prize was a copy of the book. I commented then, that I didn't need to give contact info as I was already due to get one. I'm sorry to post this here, but I searched the blog to see if there were any posts related to this topic with contact info and didn't find one. What should I do?

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  9. Cheryl, I'd love to hear any of your comments about Wizarding World (or your hotel). We're headed there this weekend (and staying at the same hotel, so we can try Quidditch croquet!).

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  10. Hmmmm. I have a huge Harry Potter fan in my house and a dusty croquet set in the garage. Thanks for this. It may be useful.

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  11. At last, we got everyone together to play Quidditch Croquet (with a brief intermission for rain), and I have the following comment: It is much too hard for the Snitch to win! Our Snitch never made more than two or three passes up and down the course by the time one of the other players won (probably because the Snitch never gets extra strokes except when coming through a wicket). I suggest making the Snitch's goal 4 complete passes (1 for each House) rather than 13. It was also harder than we thought for the Bludger to be victorious. Ravenclaw (that's me) won our first game; Slytherin (my BFF Becky) won the second.

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