Quidditch is a very complicated game. There are 7 players on each team, 4 balls, over 700 ways to commit a foul on another player and it’s played flying on broomsticks!

The four balls each serve their own purpose:

The Quaffle is the largest of all of the balls and red. IT’s roughly the size of a soccer ball (football outside of North America) and is used to score on the opposing team.

The Bludgers (2) are slightly smaller than the quaffle and are hard and black. They fly around the pitch trying to hurt the players.

The Golden Snitch is slightly larger than a walnut, it has wings and is gold (which can make it very hard to see). Only one player on each team is allowed to catch the snitch (see below) and when caught, it ends the game and gives the team who caught is an extra 150 points.

The 7 players on each team are as follows:

3 Chasers are responsible for intercepting and passing the Quaffle to one another. They use the Quaffle to score on the opposite team.

1 Keeper is responsible from stopping the other team from scoring with the Quaffle.

2 Beaters are responsible for keeping the Bludgers away from their teammates and hitting them towards the opposing team with small bats (that are like mini baseball bats for you muggles who are reading this) they carry around with them.

1 Seeker is responsible for keeping an eye out for the Golden Snitch which does not remain within the pitch’s boundaries for the entire game. It can oly be caught while it’s inside the pitch. The Seeker is supposed to catch the snitch before the other team’s Seeker.

The pitch is in the shape of an oval. It has 3 raised golden hoops at either end of the pitch which the teams try to throw the Quaffle through to score.

There is always 1 referee at a match.

Page Last Updated: 2003