Northern and Southern Cups (Quidditch)

Northern Cup
Tournament information
Month played November
Established 2014
Administrator(s) QuidditchUK
Format Varies
Website QuidditchUK website
Current champion
Nottingham Nightmares
Southern Cup
Tournament information
Month played November
Established 2014
Administrator(s) QuidditchUK
Format Varies
Website QuidditchUK website
Current champion
Radcliffe Chimeras

The Northern and Southern Cups are the two major regional quidditch tournaments of the United Kingdom. Organised by QuidditchUK, the tournaments serve both as qualification prerequisites for other tournaments, such as the European Quidditch Cup,[1] and major tournaments in of themselves, often considered the most important tournaments of the year, after the British Quidditch Cup.

History

Locations of the Northern (blue) and Southern (red) Cups

The idea for a regional tournament originally came from Southampton Quidditch Club, who devised an independently organised Southern Cup, which was due to take place in February 2014. Inspired by this, Keele Quidditch Club created a counterpart "Northern Squirrel Cup", open to all the teams who weren't invited to Southern Cup (on the basis of geographical location). Due to adverse weather conditions, Southern Cup's expected debut was cancelled, but the Northern Cup went ahead as planned in March 2014. Eight teams competed, with Bangor Broken Broomsticks winning the tournament after beating Nottingham in the final. Southern Cup eventually went ahead in November of that year - the next quidditch season - where another eight teams competed. Southampton, the hosts, were defeated in the final by Radcliffe Chimeras.

Seeing the initial success of these tournaments, Britain's governing body for the sport QuidditchUK took both tournaments under their control, ready for the 2015-16 season. These tournaments were organised by QuidditchUK and a committee selected by them, rather than by any specific club. Similarly, no club officially hosted either tournament, though both locations were situated nearby to established QuidditchUK teams. Northern Cup was hosted at Belmont Community School in Durham on 31 October-1 November, while Southern Cup is due to take place at Horspath Athletics Ground in Oxford, on the 14–15 November. The latter had played host to several tournaments in the past, including the 2015 European Quidditch Cup.

Qualification

Qualification for either tournament is based solely on the geographical location of the team. A theoretical horizontal line is drawn at latitude 52.632000,[2] dictating that any teams based south of that line compete at Southern Cup, and all north at Northern Cup. At this time there is no additional criteria; any team registered with QuidditchUK is eligible to play, regardless of experience or skill level.

Format

Traditionally, the tournaments have consisted of pool play, followed by bracket play, in a standard tournament structure. The exact format however is flexible, due to the varying amount of teams competing in each iteration of the cup.

2015: Northern and Southern Cups

Fourteen teams competed in Northern Cup 2015 (originally fifteen, before the withdrawal of Preston Poltergeists), which was organised by Tournament Director Tom Challinor. After two days of competitive games, including pool play and a lower bracket in addition to the finals,[3] the final standings were as follows:[4]

  1. Nottingham Nightmares
  2. Durhamstrang
  3. Loughborough Longshots
  4. Keele Squirrels
  5. Leicester Thestrals
  6. Bangor Broken Broomsticks
  7. Holyrood Hippogriffs
  8. Leeds Griffins
  9. Derby Union Quidditch
  10. Chester Centurions
  11. St. Andrews Snidgets
  12. HogYork Horntails
  13. Durham Direwolves
  14. Manchester Manticores

Southern Cup 2015, organised by Tournament Director Sally Higginson, is due to follow a similar structure.[5] Seventeen teams will compete:

Pool A: Radcliffe Chimeras, Exeter Patronum, Cambridge University Quidditch Club, Brizzlebees, Taxes Quidditch

Pool B: Southampton Quidditch Club Firsts, Warwick University Quidditch Club, Oxford Quidlings, Portsmouth Horntail Strikers

Pool C: Falmouth Falcons, Reading Rocs, Southampton Quidditch Club Seconds, Norwich Nifflers

Pool D: London Unspeakables, Brizzlebears, Werewolves of London, Swansea Seven Swans

Past champions: Northern

Year Host Winner Score Runner-up Third place Score Fourth place Number of teams
2014 Keele Quidditch Club Bangor Broken Broomsticks 80–60* Nottingham Nightmares Keele Squirrels 90^–60* Loughborough Longshots 8
2015[6] Belmont Community School, Durham Nottingham Nightmares 150*–50 Durhamstrang Loughborough Longshots 100*–70 Keele Squirrels 14

Past champions: Southern

Year Host Winner Score Runner-up Third place Score Fourth place Number of teams
2014 Southampton Quidditch Club Radcliffe Chimeras 140*–30 Southampton QC1 London Unspeakables 50*–40 Falmouth Falcons 8
2015[7][8] Horspath Athletics Ground (Oxford) Radcliffe Chimeras 130*–90 Warwick QC Southampton QC1 100*–0 Brizzlebears 17

See also

References

External links

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