The Bludger

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With May, we bring you good weather as we begin to start heading into summer and the latest issue of The Bludger! 
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[font=Courier New]Oh boy, oh boy, we have a whole set of different news for you this month. For the first time in a while, the London Quidditch Stadium will open for a very special match. Instead of seeing the Quidditch League face off, we will be watching two wizarding schools face off. Students from our very own British school, Hogwarts, will face off against another European school - Durmstrang - in a massive Quidditch finals!

The Hogwarts Team will be their current Quidditch Champions, which we heard is their hard-working dedicated loyal house of badgers. Well, their hard work clearly paid off! It is said that the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team won every single match in the past year - beating those brave Gryffindors, the smart Ravenclaws and the cunning Slytherins. It did not matter who their opponents were. Their teamwork spoke louder than their opponents. I know that I cannot wait to see what such a fantastic team looks like in action and if they can carry on their winning streak or if they will finally meet their match. They might have played off against their school friends throughout the year but now the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team are no longer playing for their house. They are playing for the whole school. They are the Hogwarts Team.

The Hogwarts Team will be against Durmstrang's finest players - their very own top players among their own internal tournaments. We know nothing about them, which makes it all the more scary. It is rumoured that they are worthy of being called national players based on their talent alone. Durmstrang promotes the concept of a healthy body helps to allow a healthy mind to strive. They take their physical activities rather seriously. This might be the toughest match that the Hogwarts team will have to face.

This Summer, we will see the two schools face off in what we hope to be the most intense match there ever was. We usually see the professional teams fight off in the battlefield - also known as the quidditch pitch. However, we are excited to see something different in the London Quidditch Stadium for once! We at the Bludger are quite keen to see what the students can do. After all, these students are the future. Perhaps we will scout out some talent - maybe a future Quidditch Star lives among them?

Good luck to both teams. The fact that you are playing in the London Quidditch Stadium at such a young age speaks wonders for your talent. More than that, it paints a story of hard work, dedication and teamwork. Whatever happens out there, know that. [/font]

[font=Courier New]With all these discussions of climate change, you've got to prepare your body for these rising temperatures. What better way to prepare than picking up a bottle of the new antiperspirant, Sweet Sweat! Sweet Sweat is guaranteed to block those sweat glands from overreacting to the heat, and with five scents, you are certain to get one that speaks to you.

By speaks to you, we mean literally! Sweet Sweat is bewitched with a charm that will screech "Don't forget me!" every morning, so you'll never have to worry about embarrassing sweat again!

Next time, don't worry about the disgusted faces you might meet as you whiz by a teammate at Quidditch practice! Just apply a bit of Sweet Sweat, and you'll be sweating less every practice! Pick up a stick of Sweet Sweat today at your local Quidditch shop, available in vanilla, cucumber, cauldron cakes, butterbeer, or steak scents.[/font]

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As always, there have been plenty of matches that happened this month. We did not cover them but the other matches this month have been:

Falmouth Falcons (300) vs. Wimbourne Wasps (30) - Falcons caught the snitch.
Tutshill Tornados (290) vs. Wigtown Wanderers (50) - Tornados caught the snitch.
Holyhead Harpies (370) vs. Chudley Cannons (360) - Cannons caught the snitch.
Kenmare Kestrels (160) vs. Caerphilly Catapults (370) - Catapults caught the snitch.
Montrose Magpies (220) vs. Banchory Bangers (250) - Bangers caught the snitch.
Pride of Portree (160) vs. Ballycastle Bats (40) - Portree caught the snitch.
Puddlemere United (260) vs. Appleby Arrows (350) - Arrows caught the snitch.

And there you have it. That's all from us this month, but we will be back next month, bringing you the hard hitting news of the Quidditch scene![/font]

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With June, we bring you far too hot weather with the hope of lots of rain to cool down as we begin to start heading into summer and a delayed latest issue of The Bludger! 
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[font=Courier New]FREAK OUT! Aaahhh freak out! Why you ask? Well, because the International Quidditch Tournament between Wizarding Schools has officially begun! On 1st July, schools from all over the world came together to face off in a friendly competition. Last month, we spoke about our very own British school and their opponents. That game will take place on the 16th of the month - so watch this space! We will be sure to cover it in our next issue.

However, we wanted to start by introducing some of the other schools. On the 9th July, we witnessed a face off between Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. In all honesty, we anticipated this game would be a complete wipe-out and very much an one-sided domination (no offence) since Beauxbatons was struggling to even commit to the tournament.

The French school almost dropped out of the competition after failing to secure a full team. However, in a last minute turn of events, they managed to pull together enough people to submit their entry on the last day of the deadline. They barely got any chance to practice their quidditch moves and put together any strategies prior to the event. As such, we expected the team to get completely wiped out as a result. However, we are very pleasantly surprised by their performance!

The game began with Ilvermorny instantly dominating. They successfully scored three times before Beauxbatons even had touched the quaffle. The American beater duo are known for their brutality on the pitch and today was no different. They took out almost all of the Beauxbatons Chasers, leaving just one to solo the game against their three and all of their beaters. We are pretty sure we saw them cheat a few times too, though the referee seemed to disagree! It did not take them long to rack up fourteen goals, compared to Beauxbatons' big 'zero' on the scoreboard. It was a clear win, almost a write off.

And then Beauxbaton stopped playing Quidditch. They gave up with whatever strategy they supposedly had and did what they did best. The game instantly turned from 'Quidditch' to a race. Grabbing the quaffle, the sole Chaser, Durand, whizzed around the pitch fast - dodging out of the way of any attacks. Her speed combined with her accuracy of zipping through the American team - and she managed to trick Ilvermorny's beaters into accidentally taking out one of their own Chasers!

Devijlder, the French School's Seeker evaded, dodging out of the way of multiple bludgers that were constantly hired at him, at the same time. Together, this two person team, pretty much duo-ed the entire game. Within moments, they had scored three times.

But their moment of glory was when the Ilvermorny Seeker spotted the snitch. In her excitement, she made it far too obvious that she had seen it... Her hint was enough and Beauxbatons took complete advantage of it. As one of the top broom racers of his school, Devijlder managed to whiz right past and secure the golden snitch - snatching it right before the American reached!

Can you believe it?! The most boring game turned into one of the most exciting games that we have ever seen - and the audience's excitement was through the roof! The underdogs won!

Ilvermorny 140 : Beauxbatons 180

Beauxbatons won the first Quidditch game in many years! A huge congratulations to the entire team but mostly, to the incredible D&D duo, Durand and Devijlder! [/font]

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As always, there have been plenty of matches that happened last month. We, unfortunately, did not get a chance to cover them but here are the results for the other games:

Wimbourne Wasps (280) vs. Wigtown Wanderers (80):
Wimbourne Wasps caught the snitch.
Falmouth Falcons (200) vs. Holyhead Harpies (230):
Holyhead Harpies caught the snitch.
Chudley Cannons (150) vs. Kenmare Kestrels (240):
Kenmare Kestrels caught the snitch.
Caerphilly Catapults (140) vs. Montrose Magpies (220):
Montrose Magpies caught the snitch.
Banchory Bangers (170) vs. Pride of Portree (60):
Banchory Bangers caught the snitch.
Ballycastle Bats (300) vs. Puddlemere United (10):
Ballycastle Bats caught the snitch.
Appleby Arrows (380) vs. Tutshill Tornados (150):
Appleby Arrows caught the snitch.

And there you have it. That's all from us this month but we will be back next month, bringing you the hard hitting news of the Quidditch scene - and news on the Tournament's progress![/font]