NEW YORK — The seeker from the Bronx High School of Science had to jump a fence and follow the snitch down Fifth Avenue. He caught the snitch, but it didn’t count because his broom wasn’t between his legs.
Bronx Science lost 50-30 to Lenox (Mass.) High School as Central Park played host to an exhibition of Quidditch, the soccer-like game invented by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
In the books, Quidditch is played by wizards and witches on flying broomsticks. The real-life version with Muggles — nonmagical folk — started in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont and is now played at more than 150 colleges and 100 high schools.
In Muggle Quidditch, chasers try to throw the quaffle — a volleyball — through a hoop. For defense, beaters hit opposing players with a bludger — a dodgeball. The team’s seeker runs after the snitch, a fast runner with a tennis ball in a sock that the seeker has to grab, like the flag in flag football. In the fictional game, the snitch is a small, winged ball.
