Total Quadball.

  For our first recording of 2022, we sat down with Alice Walker- new head coach of Team England (formerly Team UK). In a compelling and honest discussion, Alice tells the story of her quidditch career as a player and coach. Starting with her rapid rise through the ranks and success in her early years at Oxford University Quidditch Club before then discussing her playing experience with Team UK, stepping into leadership at Oxford, joining Werewolves of London and the drive that has seen her take up the mantle as national team head coach.  Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify (coming soon) Click here to listen to the episode on Anchor Photo Credit- Mark Walker A great note to start the year on. Thank you to everyone for their engagement with the podcast thus far, plenty more episodes to come in 2022! #LiveTheGame

 Bromance, Hoops and Enjoying Yourself- Luke Twist & Jan Mikolajczak Our 2nd episode of the series is another double bill as we are joined by good friends Luke Twist and Jan Mikolajczak. The pair tell us about their early days starting out at Oxford playing for the Radcliffe Chimeras, reaching the top of the UK and European game with club and country, having fun on the Mighty and Amazing Quercs, moving to Werewolves of London and having further success in the British capital, making hoops and running Bluehawk Quidditch Supplies as well as telling us what they're currently up to with Jan having moved back to Poland and Luke stepping up his engagement with UK quidditch once more after taking a bit of a step back from the sport in recent years. Click here to listen to the episode on Anchor Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify Episode timestamps 2:12- Jurassic Cup reflections with Luke, moving to Poland with Jan 11:53- Beginning to play quidditch at the University of Oxf...

Rumpeldunk, Travelling and Defying the odds- Elisabeth Jørstad  For the first episode of March and fifth total, we turn our attention to Scandinavia, speaking with Norway's Elisabeth Jørstad. Elisabeth tells us about her wide-reaching career which has led to her playing on club teams in Norway, UK, USA and Belgium as well as playing for the Norwegian and UK national teams. We compare and contrast these experiences as well as talk about the development of NTNUI Rumpeldunk* (Elisabeth's first team and multiple time Norwegian national champions) and Norway as a whole, celebrating some of their great achievements in the sport including defeating Paris Titans in 2017 and France in 2019. As always, thanks to our listeners for following the pod and for sending in your mailbag questions. Make sure you give the Total Quidditch. facebook page a 'like' so you can keep up to date with future episodes.  *= for those who don't know, Rumpeldunk is the Norwegian word for quidditch,...

Hi all, bringing you a bit of a different kind of article today. The idea for this one comes from an article that featured in the Knowledge section of Guardian Sport in  the Guardian  a few months ago. The concept of the article looks at a hypothetical scenario in football where, instead of the familiar league structure, the Premier League organisers instead decided that the title of national champions would be passed on like a Championship Belt is in Boxing. Whoever beats the current 'belt' holders in a single match becomes the champion until they lose and the team that beats them is now the new champion (e.g. Manchester United are the current champions but if they lose to Chelsea then Chelsea become the new champions). Considering the history of the Premier League and the nature of football in which upsets happen frequently, the article created some interesting hypothetical scenarios so naturally it seemed like a good idea to apply this concept to quidditch. While the histor...

  Leadership, Psychology and a Notepad- Ash Cooper For episode two, we spoke with Ash Cooper, the most decorated player in UK quidditch history and well renowned coach. Ash tells us about his early days with Oxford's Radcliffe Chimeras, his approach to captaining and coaching through fitness and psychology, his work on quidditch injury studies and how a notepad helped shape the landscape of UK quidditch as we know it today. Click here to listen to the episode Photo Credit- Howard Orridge Yet again, big thank you to everyone for sending in their mailbag questions. To keep up with news on future episodes, make sure you head to the Total Quidditch. facebook page and give it a 'Like'. This is also where you can suggest your mailbag questions in the comments on the announcement posts or by messaging the page. Hope you enjoyed this episode and are excited for more to come! #LiveTheGame