Wellingtonians bring quidditch to life

It's not every day you see people running around a field with a broomstick between their legs, but a group of Wellingtonians is emerging from its cloak of invisibility to bring quidditch to life.

The sport is just like it is in the wizard fantasy world of Harry Potter, except participants don't fly.

Victoria University's quidditch team is hoping to get to the World Championship and club president Lola Valentine, 20, says their hopes of getting there are high.

"Its pretty much the same as the game you'll see in the movies and what you'll read in the books, but we don't fly.

"We just run around with brooms," she says.

"We can't do magic."

Ms Valentine said the game could take a long time.

"It could take as short as 10 minutes to [several] days.

"We're going to have to put in a lot of hours of training if we want to meet the international standards."

The quirky sport has attracted a mixture of Muggles -- non-magical people -- to Kelburn Park, their training ground.

"We have the total nerds, who love the magic of it, and then there are people that haven't even read the books but they just want to run around and get fit."

The sport also attracted a few laughs and curiosity from others.

"We used to train next to rugby players every Wednesday night and they're massive guys who probably haven't seen Harry Potter.

"We definitely get funny looks but they support us.

"They haven't joined us but they have definitely laughed at us," Ms Valentine says.

Victoria University isn't the only place in New Zealand to pick up the quirky sport; Canterbury has four teams.

"They are pretty strong. I think they have four different teams and they play amongst themselves."

She'd like the game to grow.

"We've been training with some kids at an intermediate here in Wellington and it would be great to see it expand to other universities in New Zealand and become a popular sport."

The team's main weapon -- the broomstick -- isn't quite like the Nimbus 2000 belonging to Harry Potter.

Instead they go for more humble broom handles from Bunnings.

However, the team plans to upgrade to professional broomsticks should they reach the World Cup in Germany.

"We can't afford proper tails for our brooms. There are also professional racing broomsticks you can buy for international tournaments."

What is quidditch and how is it played?

• The game originated in the popular book-turned-movie series Harry Potter, written by J.K. Rowling.

• It requires seven people on each side, with four balls and three hoops.

• The aim of the game is to capture a small ball called the golden snitch.

• When this is captured, the game is finished.

• However, in the real world, the golden snitch is played by a person who runs around with a long sock attached to the back of their shorts.