RIDGEFIELD — Icy grass, a lack of bona fide magical broomsticks and even a missing volunteer who got stuck in Portland didn’t prevent seven stalwart Quidditch players from zooming about the Davis Park pitch on Saturday afternoon — hurling quaffles past keepers, dodging bludgers and chasing the speedy Golden Snitch.
And if most of that sports terminology means nothing to you, join the club of shivering-but-game parents and grandparents who brought kids to this informal, under-12 showcase of make-believe, magically airborne rugby — Harry Potter’s favorite pastime.
“They’re all speaking a foreign language,” said John Coop, who brought 11-year-old grandson Sam Vernon to the game and who was enlisted, before he knew it, as a goalie — a “keeper,” as they’re called at Harry’s alma mater, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
“He knows all the details,” said Heather Oliveira of son Claudio, 10, who took position as the opposing keeper. “He’s a big fan.” In fact, Claudio sometimes mutters that his mom “sounds just like Peter Pettigrew,” she reported with bemusement. (That’s not exactly a compliment — but let’s not tell Mom.)
Helene Repman, age 6, hasn’t yet read much Harry Potter at all — but that hasn’t prevented her stealing the books from her older sister Lila’s room, the truth was revealed before the game began. Helene is impatient to join the wonderful world her sister already has access to, their mom said.
Saturday afternoon’s cold-weather Quidditch match was sponsored by the Ridgefield Community Library and rapidly organized by heroic librarian Lois Lamkin — despite never before visiting Hogwarts, she said — when that volunteer didn’t turn up. Given this demonstration of dedication and sheer bravery, we figure Lamkin must belong to Gryffindor House or Hufflepuff House.
Wooden dowels substituted for actual flying broomsticks, but that didn’t seem to faze anybody. The goals were hula hoops loosely affixed to step ladders. And the part of the zigzagging Golden Snitch — the ultimate prize, worth 150 points and a sudden win — was played first by the incredibly fast Hailey Kane, age 8, and then equally swift sister Allison, 9, and finally by their grandfather, Art Schoonover. Other players could tell they were the Golden Snitch because of the golden ribbons taped to their coats.
“This is exciting! No one will catch me,” a beribboned Schoonover vowed before flying off. “And I’m golden, too!” (In fact, he got caught pretty quickly.)
Schoonover, 65, admitted that he’d consumed the entire Harry Potter saga, all seven increasingly huge books, before ever sharing them with his grandkids. It was the wife of a work colleague who recommended the first book as a good ready for anybody, child or adult, he said, and Schoonover quickly got hooked.
Still, the rules supposedly limited Saturday’s game to players 12 and under, leading to threats to report the gleefully galloping Schoonover to FIQA, the F?d?ration Internationale de Quidditch Association — but librarian Lamkin doubted such a call would go through.
“I think that’s long distance,” she said. “Between dimensions.”
