Total Quadball.

 Psychology with Ash Cooper Dr. Ash Cooper joins us for his second appearance on the pod to talk all about psychology. In this in-depth discussion, we look at various aspects of psychology and its impact on life as well as sporting performance. Whether it's understanding the 'why' behind the way you or your teammates behave, learning how to bring a team together, analysing your opposition or staying calm under pressure, there is bound to be something you can take away from this thought-provoking episode. Listen on Spotify Listen on Anchor Original Photo Credit- Team UK: International Quidditch #LiveTheGame

  Cultivating Team Culture with Jay Holmes Our series 4 finale episode is another trip into the unknown experimenting with a new type of episode. Jay Holmes joins us to talk about the topic of team culture. Throughout the episode we discuss this in all kinds of different aspects drawing on examples from our experiences playing quidditch and other sports and identifying key traits and behaviours that people should strive for in order to create a positive team culture. Note- We did have some connection issue which unfortunately have affected the recording at certain points. Normally we try to edit these issues out beforehand however in some cases this was not possible. If you would like some clarification on certain points where the audio cuts out, please message our Facebook page and we will do our best to expand on the points being made. Apologies for the inconvenience. Listen on Spotify Listen on Anchor Photo Credit- David Richardson #LiveTheGame

 The Total Quidditch. Podcast Episode 39- BQC 2022 Review Amber Connerton, Anjit Aulakh and Emma 'Jandels' Humphrey join us to debrief following this year's British Quidditch Cup in Sheffield. Listen on Spotify Listen on Anchor Photo Credits- Paul Watts (QuidditchUK) #LiveTheGame

  Alice Walker and Seb Waters join us to look ahead to this weekend's British Quidditch Cup in Sheffield, UK. In this episode we look back on memorable moments from past BQCs before switching focus to the weekend ahead including Day 1 matchups and exciting teams & players to watch out for. Listen on Spotify Listen on Anchor *This episode was recorded before the releasing of any rosters so there may be some inaccuracies* Photo cre dits- QuidditchUK (Mark Hill, Kurt Fairhurst, Paul Watts) We hope this episode gets you excited for the tournament ahead and we look forward to seeing you there. Best of luck to all competing teams and players! #LiveTheGame

The One with the  QuidditchUK Presidents Part 1 In our first ever two part episode, we sat down to talk with 4 out of 5 of the QuidditchUK Presidents. Rob Barringer, Ben Morton, Mel Piper and Matt Bateman joined us for what ended up being a 3 hour conversation about their respective experiences leading Quidditch in the UK and shedding light on what it takes to run a National Governing Body for an emerging sport. Part 1 focuses more on the origins of quidditch in the UK, the establishment of QuidditchUK as an organisation and where it went on to from there. Part 2 is more centred on the challenges of the last couple of years as well as looking to the future of the sport.  Listen on Spotify Listen on Anchor We hope you enjoy this Part 1, make sure you watch out for Part 2 coming next week. Photo Credits- QuidditchUK, LN Graphics and Photography, Matt Bateman, Aym Maidment, Ben Morton, Southampton Quidditch Club  #LiveTheGame

 In  this episode, Fraser is joined by former teammate Alex Carpenter, current teammate Andrew Hull and Belgium's Pauline Raes to discuss some big recent quidditch news. In December, Major League Quidditch and US Quidditch stated their intentions to start the process of creating a new name for the sport, an announcement that has been picked up by media across the world and shaken the quidditch community with the magnitude of this big decision in the sport's history. We discuss the various implications and pros and cons of the name change on the sport on many levels. From recruitment, to identity, to finances and the actual name itself as well as various other factors at play. Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify. Click here to listen to the episode on Anchor. Pauline Raes at European Games 2017. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography Alex Carpenter playing for the UK at European Games 2019. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography  Andrew Hull ...

  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

  Happy New Year!   We are back for 2022 with a brand-new series of the Total Quidditch .  Podcast to wrap your ears around.  Click here to listen to the new episode on Spotify Click here to listen to the new episode on Anchor Kicking us off, our first episode of series 4 is our latest look at the state of the game. Having previously discussed the new QuidditchUK  Community League during last series, we now turn our attentions to the other side of the coin- university quidditch. The first Northern and Southern University league fixtures were played out in Manchester and London respectively back in November. Part of a new format for the 2021/2022 season which splits community and university teams into separate competitions. For this episode, we are joined by Sheffield Quidditch Club’s President Amit Portnoy, Oxford University Quidditch Club’s Beater Coach Callum Brennan and Edinburgh Holyrood Hippogriffs’ President and Head Coach Hannah Glover. They share wi...

From Doss to Boss, Momentum and a Shoe Box- Tom O we r We take a trip down memory lane with Bristol Quidditch Club founder Tom Ower, talking about his unconventional quidditch journey. From 'inventing' quidditch in a Reading cul-de-sac in 2002 to starting the Brizzlepuffs, creating a 'doss' culture and all the shenanigans that followed- Whiteknights, All-Star weekends, Double overtime victories, Nandos and a shoe box of hopes and dreams plus many other things. A delightful insight into the life of one of the UK's most likeable teams and people.  Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify Click here to listen to the episode on Anchor Photo Credit- Tom Ower Thanks as always to our listeners for their mailbag questions! #LiveTheGame

  For the first time on the Total Quidditch. Podcast, Fraser is joined by three guests, making this our biggest episode yet! Alex Carpenter from the West Country Rebels, Marianna Parroquin from Olympians QC and Seb Waters from London QC sat down with our host to talk about the state of UK Quidditch following the opening two QuidditchUK Community league fixtures including their tournament experiences at these events, a discussion on the new rules and gameplay plus a talk about the winter break and its value to the UK community.  Click here to listen to episode on Spotify Click here to listen to episode on Anchor Timestamps for this episode will be made available on here at a later date. Thanks to Alex, Marianna & Seb for their time. We hope you enjoy the episode! #LiveTheGame  Alex Carpenter in action for West Country Rebels vs East Midlands Vipers. Photo Credit- Paul Watts Photography Marianna Parroquin celebrating winning Division 2 with Olympians QC in London. Photo...

  Following the return of quidditch to the UK after the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Jay Holmes and Alice Walker join us to talk about the state of the sport in the UK. We first talk about Jurassic Cup, the first tournament back from lockdown which took place in July, discussing the tournament as a whole and some of the new IQA and tournament specific rules and how they affected gameplay at the tournament. We then look ahead to first community league fixture taking place this weekend in Derby, talking about the format of the league and the Uni-Community split as well as making some tentative predictions for the fixture. Click here to listen on Spotify Click here to listen on Anchor Episode Timestamps 2:35- Jurassic Cup Recap 18:02- The new IQA ruleset and Jurassic Cup specific rules, discussing their impact on gameplay 32:48- QUK Community League Fixture 1 Preview, discussing the Uni-Community Split 38:29- Division 2 discussion, highlighting teams and certain player...

 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...

Setting goals, Living your wizarding dreams and Going Down Under- Andrew Hull In this episode, we talk with long time Team UK and Velociraptors QC keeper Andrew Hull. Andrew tells us about how he got into quidditch through his love of Harry Potter, his early days at Bangor and with Team UK, joining Oxford from Bangor and the big transformation he made as a player during that season, the first year of playing with Raptors, his time playing down in Australia, the 2018 World Cup, a bizarre celebrity experience at a Harry Potter festival in Denmark and his desire to continue playing quidditch at the highest level. Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify Click here to listen to the  episode on Anchor Photo Credit- Howard Orridge Timestamps will be added at a later date. Thanks to our listeners for their mailbag questions as always, love to see the engagement with the show! #LiveTheGame 

 Globetrotting, Backing yourself and Tackling sexism- Bex McLaughlin  In episode 13, we talk to one of the more colourful characters within the European community- Bex McLaughlin. In this wide-ranging interview, we look back at how Bex began playing quidditch at the University of Southern Mississippi in southern USA, returning to the UK to play with Keele and multiple other teams, setting up their own team, moving to live in Catalonia and Austria, representing multiple national teams, playing Rugby, commentating and volunteering. We also talk about Bex's grievances with the sport, notably incidences of sexism, raising awareness of some important issues for quidditch to address as a sporting community.  Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify Photo Credit- Annemieke Drost Quidditch Photography Thanks to everyone for submitting so many questions for the (fe)mail bag for this episode, it's great to see lots of engagement from our listeners! Remember to stay up to date...

Self-Awareness, Basketball and L eading from the front- Aaron Veale In more of a personal episode for our host, we speak with Fraser's long time teammate Aaron Veale. Starting off as a plucky 5ft 7 kid rocking up to his first quidditch session at Southampton in a Portsmouth shirt, Aaron talks through his career progression including his early success winning BQC 2015 with the Anchors all the way through to his captaincy year in which he redefined himself as a short yet very capable shooting keeper that pushed the UK game in new directions. We also talk through his initial breakthrough with Team UK at European Games 2015, his self-doubt in terms of finding his role within a team, how his background in Basketball has transferred to quidditch as well as his experience playing with Werewolves of London.  Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography Thanks as always to our listeners and to those submitting questions for the mailbag. Check out our Facebook page to see who's comin...

  Personality, Triumph and Villainy- Jay Holmes Another in-depth interview in this 9th episode of the podcast. We talk to Jay Holmes, now former Head Coach of Team UK and former Captain of Velociraptors QC. We take a real honest and reflective look into Jay's rise through the ranks of the UK game, starting off with his time playing for Bangor, his transformation following the 2016 World Cup when he first joined Raptors, his successful leadership within the club and ultimately culminating in him taking charge of the national team as Head Coach. As a major figure within UK quidditch, we also discuss Jay's battles with mental health, coping with criticism and animosity as well as his captaining and coaching methods. Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify 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. Ph...

 Pass & Move, Resilience and a Packet of Crisps- Seb Waters In our seventh episode, we have an in-depth chat with Team UK keeper and assistant coach Seb Waters. We cover all kinds of topics, from Seb's visits over to Turkey and what he's learnt from their game, how he and his Warwick QC teammates carved out a play style based on football that saw them rise to the top of the UK game, his vivid memories of multiple tournaments with Team UK, London QC, Warwick QC, his QPL experience, all the way to how he has coped with tough losses and turned them into something productive.  Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify 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. Note- We are aware a player may have been misgendered during the episode. As a clarification, this was very much an accident. As many know, t...

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...

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the tournament draft review from my 8th Man All-Time fantasy fantasy team.  In part 1, we went through picks 1-7 and in this part, we'll have a look at picks 8-14 and why and how I decided to pick them in this All-time hypothetical fantasy tournament.  Let's get to it! Pick #8- Joshua Andrews Photo Credit- Isabella Gong Photography Position(s)- Seeker/Keeper Notable teams played for- UTSA Quidditch, Texas Cavalry, Austin Outlaws (MLQ Team), USA National Quidditch Team (USNQT) Country- USA With half a roster drafted, I turned my attention towards a seeker. I anticipated that seekers would be on the agenda for the other GMs at this point too so I knew I needed to get in there now before some of the better options disappeared. As was discussed in the draft coverage, seeker wasn't a straightforward selection to make as there have been numerous talented seekers throughout history but very few who have consistently caught snitches to win games acros...