Tom TJ Ower
Featured society: A blog about the development of Brizzlepuffs
It all started several years back whilst I was in sixth form and procrastinating on YouTube. All of a sudden a video on my side tab titled ‘Muggle Quidditch in two minutes’ caught my eye. As someone who grew up being an avid fan of the Harry Potter franchise, I continued my research into the fast developing sport of ‘Quidditch.’ I was hooked.
I was deputy head boy of my secondary school at the time, and suggested to the Head boy and the school council that setting up a team was a great idea. Being a school that prided itself on sporting excellence, I was met with laughter. One, for being in an all-boys school would contradict the mixed-gendered nature of the sport, and two, our year group were British champions of football and rugby fanatics and much more focused on ‘real sports’.
Upon coming to university, I was eager to throw myself into as many things as possible. I decided to try something new and signed up to lacrosse at fresher’s fair. Towards the end of my first year, I decided to do something different, I had made friends with some University of Bristol students in the halls opposite me and had previously joked many a time about setting up a Quidditch team in Bristol. I messaged as many friends I could with information about the sport, and gathered up a substantial amount of interest resulting in the formation of a Facebook Group.
My Dad came up with the name ‘Brizzlepuffs’, the now former head boy designed the logos and the roller banners as an apology for not letting me set one up at school. I begged people across both universities to become committee members, and sure enough managed to get a stand at freshers fair with two weeks’ notice. We became known as Brizzlepuffs Quidditch Club, whose members were a hybrid of UWE, UOB and community members.
Fresher’s fair came by really quick with positive responses from the crowds at both universities, and with a successful social media campaign, we quickly became noticed by teams all over the world. The first taster session gathered 80 people together and was played on a pitch the size of a football pitch (Quidditch pitches are the size of an ice hockey rink.) Our first training session took place on the 1st October, with our first match organized for 2nd November. We ordered our red and gold kits and marched onto Oxford to our first official game. Although the physical aspect surprised us initially, we won 60*-40 against the Warwick Whomping Willows (the asterix represents that we caught the snitch), and were invited to the Southern Cup the following weekend down in Southampton.
No one was prepared for the mud bath and rainy conditions of that weekend, but we managed to achieve 7th place at the regional tournament regardless. Our calendar became full of matches, with fixtures taking place every week throughout the season. The British Quidditch Cup took place in March 2015 in Nottingham, where we took on the toughest teams around the UK. Of the 24 that attended, we achieved 13th place, finishing above teams that had existed for years. We ended the season attending several tournaments and in the mindset that we would set up a second team as we became oversubscribed fairly quickly. The first team became the Brizzle Bears, and the seconds became the Brizzle Bees (get it, B team?) under the umbrella that was Brizzlepuffs Quidditch Club. Our new kit was awarded the 8th best in the world by a major Quidditch media outlet, and became a popular purchase all over the world. After victories against Exeter and other teams, we marched on to Southern 2016 in Oxford, where our two teams would make their competitive debuts. The Bees finished 13th out of 17 teams in a group of death, and the Bears were faced with potential European qualification should they win their quarter final match against Falmouth.
After an impressive comeback by the Bears, they clawed their way to double overtime, where a test of the quickest would take place in a Western style shootout to determine which team would be going to the European Quidditch Championships in Italy this April. A crowd of approximately 400 witnessed the winning goal scored by myself, happened in the space of only a couple of seconds. We were going to Europe!
We are now under way with the preparation towards the British Quidditch Cup in March taking place in Rugeley, and the European Quidditch championships in April. We’re always recruiting! So come along and become part of the largest, funnest club in Europe.
For more information visit: Brizzlepuffs
