Which sport is played by the Reading Thwackers and the Swindon Mallets in the Jasper Fforde book ‘Something Rotten’?
"husband. Then suddenly he is back, but takes a while to stabilise. Thursday must wait patiently for his un-eradication to ""stick"". In the meantime, she embarks on several seemingly impossible tasks, which include smuggling ten truckloads of banned Danish literature into Wales, tracking down an illegal clone of William Shakespeare, and teaching Friday to speak properly. On top of all of this, Thursday still has to help the Swindon Mallets win the 1988 Croquet Superhoop final to thwart Kaine and Goliath and avoid the impending end of the world (as foretold by the aforementioned prophecy). She succeeds but not without"
"Quidditch (sport) Quidditch is a sport of two teams of seven players each mounted on broomsticks played on a hockey rink-sized pitch. It is based on a fictional game of the same name invented by author J. K. Rowling, which is featured in the ""Harry Potter"" series of novels and related media. The game is also sometimes referred to as muggle quidditch to distinguish it from the fictional game, which involves magical elements such as flying broomsticks and enchanted balls. In the ""Harry Potter"" universe, a ""muggle"" is a person without the power to use magic. The pitch is rectangular"
"the ""Harry Potter"" series that Eileen Prince (Snape's mother) was captain of Hogwarts' Gobstone Club, as a student, at age 15. The Quidditch balls consist of a Quaffle, a large red ball (and the only one not bewitched to fly on its own) which the Chasers need to get through the three hoops on the field, gaining ten points each time this successfully occurs; two Bludgers, which fly around attempting to disturb the game and knock people off their brooms, and which the Beaters hit away from teammates and towards the opposing team; and the Golden Snitch, a very fast"
"The Downside Ball Game The Downside Ball Game is an outdoor racquet sport played by Gregorians at Downside School, Stratton-On-The-Fosse, Somerset since 1820. It bears some similarities to Fives; however, it is played with a solid wooden bat rather than one's hand. The History of the sport came about from Downside's situation at the time, as there was no room for anything else, there were fewer than sixty boys in the School throughout the 1820s. Abbot Snow, an Abbot of Downside Abbey, once said how football, 'not the tactical manoeuvring of backs and forwards, but the rough-and-tumble game of kicking"
"Potter"" books is the competition among the four Hogwarts houses for the Quidditch Cup each school year; in particular, the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Quidditch matches are played over an oval-shaped pitch, with a scoring area at each end consisting of three hooped goal posts, each at a different height. Each team is made up of seven players, consisting of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker. The job of the Chasers is to keep possession of the scarlet Quaffle, a leather ball passed between players. They must attempt to score goals (worth 10 points) by throwing"
"his antagonists. The object of the game is for either party to drive the ball beyond the goal which lies before them, while their opponents do all in their power to prevent this."" In his poems of 1804, W. Tarras tells in verse of such a game: and The game just about died out during the 19th century with the rise in interest in football. It is known to have survived only in the Royal High School and the Edinburgh Academy. In James Trotter's book on the Royal High School, published in 1911, the game is referred to as ""the"
"right until 2012 to appoint representatives to the Council of British Rowing. The others were London Rowing Club, Thames Rowing Club, Oxford University Boat Club and Cambridge University Boat Club. Notable members include: In Evelyn Waugh's novel ""Brideshead Revisited"", the character Cousin Jasper (who ""had come within appreciable distance of getting his rowing blue"") wears a Leander Club tie when he first calls upon the protagonist Charles Ryder to offer advice on being a student at Oxford. In the 1981 television adaptation, Cousin Jasper (played by Stephen Moore) is depicted wearing the Leander's ""city"" tie (dark blue with small pink"
"Soccer Comes First Soccer Comes First (originally published as Soccer Is Also a Game) is a 1966 children's novel by prolific British author Michael Hardcastle. It is the first in a series of books focusing on the fortunes of fictitious English football team Scorton Rovers. The book begins with retired England striker Andy Blair who has recently moved to the town of Scorton watching the local team struggle in a Second Division match. After the game he is approached by club chairman Herbert Graydon who convinces him to come out of retirement and play for Rovers. As the story progresses"
"Soccer Comes First Soccer Comes First (originally published as Soccer Is Also a Game) is a 1966 children's novel by prolific British author Michael Hardcastle. It is the first in a series of books focusing on the fortunes of fictitious English football team Scorton Rovers. The book begins with retired England striker Andy Blair who has recently moved to the town of Scorton watching the local team struggle in a Second Division match. After the game he is approached by club chairman Herbert Graydon who convinces him to come out of retirement and play for Rovers. As the story progresses"
"Gift of Speed"", set during the West Indian tour of Australia in 1960-61. Jock Serong's ""The Rules of Backyard Cricket"" (2016), another cricket crime novel, tells the story of the rivalry between two brothers in the Melbourne suburbs who grow up to play in the Australian team. Cricket in fiction The sport of cricket has long held a special place in Anglophone culture, and a specialised niche in English literature. Cricket is the official summer sport in England, and it is widely known as the ""gentleman's game"", owing to the unique culture of the sport and its emphasis on ideals"
"is a league for purists. Points are awarded for different sexual acts and the season begins. Carter (named after punk band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine) sets the early pace. The approach of the individuals involved in the Sex Division is what drives the book, as their deeper feelings and inner lives are revealed. Certain characters re-appear in ""England Away"". Headhunters (novel) Headhunters is the second novel by John King and, along with ""The Football Factory"" and ""England Away"", comprises a trilogy of books that challenge the official position on subjects such as class, racism, sexism and patriotism in England."
"playing this week."" His hobbies include backgammon, vegetarian cookery, and collecting vintage broomsticks. According to Whisp, the Firebolt is the best broomstick. Quidditch Through the Ages Quidditch Through the Ages is a 2001 book written by British author J. K. Rowling using the pseudonym of Kennilworthy Whisp about Quidditch in the ""Harry Potter"" universe. It purports to be the Hogwarts library's copy of the non-fiction book of the same name mentioned in several novels of the ""Harry Potter"" series. The book benefits the charity Comic Relief. Over 80% of the cover price of each book sold goes directly to poor"
"Chasers. Wollongong Warriors is now a real-world club in the Australian Quidditch Association, a Muggle quidditch league. Wollongong Warriors The Wollongong Warriors Quidditch Club (WWQC) is the muggle quidditch club of the University of Wollongong, in New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong Warriors are a part of the Australian Quidditch Association (AQA), the governing body of Australian Quidditch, which is a constituent part of the International Quidditch Association (IQA). In the book Quidditch Through the Ages, by J.K Rowling, the Wollongong Warriors are listed as one of Australia's premier Quidditch teams. They have a fierce rivalry with the Thundelarra Thunderers, and"
"Quidditch Quidditch is a fictional sport played at Hogwarts, other schools of magic, and professionally by adult magicians, devised by author J. K. Rowling for her fantasy fiction series ""Harry Potter."" The story of Harry Potter centres around wizards and witches studying their magical craft at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Born out of the lore of witches using flying broomsticks for transportation, Quidditch was developed by the author as the most popular sport in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter; a complex game played completely in the air by wizards and witches on flying broomsticks. The objective of"
"part for changes in public attitudes to the sport. The Anglican divine and political economist Josiah Tucker also dismissed the sport as a ""most cruel and barbarous diversion' in his 'Earnest and Affectionate Address to the Common People of England Concerning their Usual Recreations on Shrove Tuesday' (1753), drawing attention to the suffering and 'lingering tortures' of a 'poor innocent creature'. From the middle of the 18th century, magistrates began to deal with the problem more harshly, a marker of its loss in popularity among the ""respectable"" classes, imposing fines for public order offences, and local by-laws banned the practice"
"rugby clubs; Reading Abbey R.F.C., Redingensians R.F.C. and Reading R.F.C.. Palmer Park Stadium within Palmer Park has a velodrome and athletics track. It is used by Palmer Park Velo, Reading Athletic Club and the Berkshire Renegades for training. The Reading Rockets basketball club plays in the English Basketball League. The Reading Hockey Club play in the Men's Premier Division and in Women's Division One of the English Hockey League. Rowing is pursued by the Reading Rowing Club, the Reading University Boat Club, both next to Caversham Bridge whilst Reading Blue Coat School trains in Sonning adjacent to The Redgrave Pinsent"
"Rounders Rounders () is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by running around the four bases on the field. Played in England since Tudor times, it is referenced in 1744 in the children's book ""A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"" where it was called Base-Ball. The game is popular among British and Irish school children, particularly among girls. As of 2015 it is played by seven million children in the UK. Gameplay centres"
"Shrewsbury Town, Dundee and Partick Thistle (alongside Derek) before heading for his birthplace of the U.S.A to turn out for Kansas City Wizards and Fort Lauderdale Strikers among others. He was also capped by his country. His son Scott is keeping it in the family and is on the books at Hamilton Academicals. The Famous ""Dukla Pumpherston"" football team was purely fictional, having been used by the comedian Tony Roper, sometime in the 1980s for the Naked Radio show, The name ""Dukla Pumpherston"" came from a play called ""The Broons"" held in Pumpherston Scout Hall circa 1982. It was the"
"batsmen needless fourers"" (which he rhymed with ""more errs""). The ""-er"" was evident also in the school cricketing stories of E. F. Benson: ""Owlers (this, of course, was Mr Howliss)"" (""David Blaize"", 1916). In the two Chimneys novels of Agatha Christie, a pompous Cabinet Minister was nicknamed Codders because of his bulging eyes (presumably an allusion to the cod fish). Evelyn Waugh referred to his books ""Remote People"" (1931) and ""Black Mischief"" (1932) as Remoters and Blackers and to Madresfield Court, the country seat of the Earls Beauchamp, as Madders. Evidence of badders for the racquet sport of badminton is"
"hunting, owns several crossbows and is much given to using the corridors of Unseen University as a shooting range. He also loves sport and was a Rowing Brown for the University in his youth (a pun on the Blue at Oxford and Cambridge Universities). Since wizards' favourite sports traditionally are things like Competitive Eating and Extreme Napping other wizards find him very tiring to be around. He is not stupid but finds it very difficult to deal with unexpected information, and generally ignores it until it goes away or becomes someone else's problem. He holds the view that if someone"
"The United Kingdom has three domestic leagues, the Elite League. the Premier League, and the National League. The Speedway Grand Prix is the main world championship for standalone riders with an event taking place in Cardiff each year. The Speedway World Cup takes place once a year and England hosts a semi final stage in Peterborough and more recently in King's Lynn. Rounders is a bat-and-ball base-running game played on a diamond. Played in England since Tudor times, it is referenced in 1744 in the children's book ""A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"" where it was called baseball. The game is popular"
"world, and in the ""Harry Potter"" series. Quidditch is a team sport played up in the air on brooms. Wizards all around the globe fanatically follow it in a similar manner to football, and the Quidditch World Cup is a major event on the wizard calendar. Not long into his first year at Hogwarts, Harry proves himself a talented Quidditch player and is named to the Gryffindor team as its Seeker, with the role of finding and catching the Golden Snitch. His activities on the Quidditch pitch feature prominently in several of the books. Lee Jordan, two years older than"
"Harry, serves as the commentator for the Quidditch matches at Hogwarts until he graduates. The sport appears in every book except the seventh; school matches are canceled in the fourth due to the need to use the pitch for the Triwizard Tournament, but Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup as a guest of the Weasley family. Other wizard games and sports include Gobstones (a version of marbles in which the stones squirt foul-smelling liquid into the other player's face when they lose a point), Exploding Snap (a card game in which the cards explode), and Wizard Chess (in which the"
"following. Other popular sports in the Illawarra include golf, rock climbing, surfing, cup stacking, triathlon and mountain biking. In the book ""Quidditch Through the Ages"" by J. K. Rowling, the Wollongong Warriors are listed as one of Australia's quidditch teams. They have a rivalry with the Thundelarra Thunderers, and are the inventors of the Wollongong Shimmy, a high-speed zig-zag move designed to confuse and distract opposing Chasers. Wollongong Warriors is now a real club in Australian Quidditch Association, a Muggle quidditch league. Wollongong will be hosting the UCI Road World Championships in 2022. In addition to numerous swimming and surfing"
"and Will Carrick-Smith Exeter Chiefs all currently play in the Aviva Premiership. Jack Maunder is an English rugby union player who plays scrum-half for Exeter Chiefs in the Aviva Premiership. Sam Maunder, brother of Jack Maunder, plays for England U18 squad. One annual tradition is the school's cross-country run known as the Russell, named after OB Jack Russell, a vicar and dog-breeder. It was first run in 1887, and 2009 saw the 129th run. The Russell has changed over the years with different courses introduced to accommodate the different ages and sexes of pupils at the school. The current senior"
"a foreigner. Taking to the country and provincial cities, Donald spends his time doing research for a book on the English by consorting with journalists and minor poets, attending a country house weekend, serving as private secretary to a Member of Parliament, attending the League of Nations, and playing village cricket. The village cricket match is the most celebrated episode in the novel, and a reason cited for its enduring appeal. An important character is Mr Hodge, a caricature of Sir John Squire (poet and editor of the ""London Mercury""), while the cricket team described in the book’s most famous"
"In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild has a far more sadistic variant of the ""Wall Game"", and is essentially an extreme hybrid of rock-climbing and dodgeball. In the first of Charlie Higson's Young Bond novels, ""SilverFin"", the young James Bond comes to Eton and learns the rules of the Wall Game. The game was a subject of the 1987 book, ""The Sports Hall of Shame"", by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo. Robert Ludlum's novel ""The Bancroft Strategy"" briefly describes the game, saying ""I believe the last time a goal was scored on a St. Andrew's day match"
"especially to new boys; the grounds are in the form of a series of terraces cut from a hill, with the school at the top, training grounds on the next step and on the next the cricket field, from the pavilion of which one can see three counties. The houses are run by the likes of Wain, Donaldson and Seymour, and the school's reputation for cricket is fearsome. The public schools ""Geddington"" and ""Ripton"" are sporting rivals. Many characters in later works are old boys, including Ukridge, his friends Jimmy Corcoran, George Tupper, and ""Looney"" Coote, as well as Sam"
"intense quarrel between the Puritans and the local gentry (many of whom were Catholic recusants) over the issue of Sunday sports. In response to the controversy raging in his diocese, Thomas Morton, Bishop of Chester, asked the king for a ruling on the propriety of Sunday sports. In response King James issued the ""Book of Sports"", a declaration declaring that it was lawful to play some sports on Sundays, but not others. Criticizing the opinions of ""puritans and precise people"", the Book listed archery, dancing, ""leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation"" as permissible sports for Sundays. It forbade"
"included ""Jimmy James and his Soul Explosion"", ""Dearham Band"" and the all-girl band ""Irresistible"". Keswick's ""Cars of the Stars"" museum provided a stunt driving display. Workington is home to the ball game known as Uppies and Downies, a traditional version of football, with its origins in medieval football, mob football or an even earlier form. Since 2001, the matches have raised over £75,000 for local charities. An Uppies and Downies ball is made from four pieces of cow leather. It is in circumference and weighs about . Only three hand-made balls are produced every year and each is dated. The"
"is also covered by the Fosse Way Magazine and Mendip Times. In 2007, Shepton Mallet came to international attention when Westcountry Farmhouse Cheesemakers broadcast the maturation of a round of Cheddar cheese called Wedginald, an event that attracted more than 1.5 million viewers. Shepton Mallet has a Non-League football club, Shepton Mallet F.C., which plays at the Playing Fields. It also has a hockey club, which play at the Leisure Centre. The bowling green of the lawn bowls club is located in Frithfield Walk. The club plays in the Wessex Mixed Friendly League, the Mid Somerset Men's League and the"
"""Catcher with a Glass Arm"", and ""The Kid Who Only Hit Homers"". He also wrote many books about football, including ""Tough to Tackle"", ""Crackerjack Halfback"", and ""Football Nightmare"", and soccer, including ""Soccer Scoop"", ""Soccer Halfback"", and ""Top Wing"", basketball and hockey. He has written books centered on snowboarding, dirt bike racing, volleyball, golf and many other sports, in addition to a number of biographies of sportsmen and women. His first children's sports book published was ""The Lucky Baseball Bat"", a 123-page novel published with illustrations by Robert Henneberger by Little, Brown of Boston in 1954. When asked why he wrote"
"Twickenham in South West London, used for major Rugby Union fixtures, including the annual Oxford ""v."" Cambridge 'Varsity match, is often abbreviated to Twickers and journalist Frank Keating has referred to the annual lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon as Wimbers. The Gloucestershire town of Cheltenham is sometimes reduced to Chelters, particularly by visitors to the Cheltenham Gold Cup horse races. Chatsworth, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, has been referred to as Chatters in ""Private Eye"". ""Test Match Special"" aside, by the mid-20th century the ""-er"" was being replaced by snappier nicknames. Thus, in the stories of Anthony Buckeridge (1912–2004),"