EXPONENTS of a sport devised from popular fiction gathered for a first in the North-East at the weekend.

Fourteen teams took part in the Northern Quidditch Cup, playing the formalised game featured in the Harry Potter series, at Belmont School, Durham.

Although it was first played for fun, as an homage to JK Rowling’s fantasy novels, at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA, in 2005, formal rules have now been applied.

It came to the UK in 2011 and is now played competitively by 32 mainly university-based teams, among 300 world-wide.

Described as a mixture of handball, rugby and dodgeball, mixed sex teams of seven on-field, from squads up to 21-strong, play full contact matches lasting a minimum of 18 minutes, but then carry on until the denouement, when the ‘snitch’ is caught.

The snitch is a tennis ball attached to the back of a match official’s shorts.

Hosts Durham Strang made it through to the final after two days of intense competition on three pitch at Belmont over the weekend.

But they just fell short of taking the trophy, as the fancied Nottingham Nightmares lived up to billing, to win 150 - 50, taking the bonus 30-points for the ultimate snitch catch, in today’s (Sunday November 1) final.

Organiser Tom Challinor said the tournament brought a total of 300 players to Durham at the weekend.

“It all went well. Teams are a lot better organised now, and take it a lot more seriously, than when it was first played.

“We used to get teams turning up two hours late and such-like, but now there’s a real competitive edge to the games.”

Further information on the sport is available via the QuiidditchUK website, www.quidditchuk.org, or www.facebook.com/quidduk.