The 2018 British Quidditch Cup (BQC 2018) was held at Brookes Sports Botley, Oxford, across the weekend of the 24th and 25th March 2018. The feedback in the document linked below was generated from a Google form distributed to the quidditch community post-tournament and reflected largely positive comments with constructive notes for improvement in the following years. For the first time the tournament committee have also provided feedback on their experience running the British Quidditch Cup, in the hopes it will be beneficial to both QuidditchUK and future tournament committees.

QuidditchUK would like to thank everyone that contributed and gave their thoughts on the event both positive and negative;  the feedback will be kept in mind and used to help plan future tournaments of an even higher standard.

Feedback for the British Quidditch Cup 2018 released

QuadballUK are sad to announce that our Media Director, Beck Throup, has decided to step down from their position. Beck has led the department for almost two years now and in that time made countless contributions to bettering not just our media but also our wider sport.

They brought a wealth of experience in communications and content strategy to QUK, and greatly improved the look and consistency of our content with updated brand guidelines. Beck was also the driving force behind our move to contemporary media platforms such as TikTok and Discord. This is not even to mention the pivotal role they played in our rebrand to quadball last year.

Beck, you've been a positive and endlessly supportive member of our executive, and your presence at our weekly meetings will be sorely missed. We are incredibly thankful for all the time you have given to this organisation and the sport. Best wishes for the future, from all your friends on EMT!

For those interested in volunteering with QUK, applications for Media Director are now live!

We are seeking an engaged individual to step up and lead our media department, also take part in the Executive Management Team to have a hand in shaping the future of our sport. In the interim, the department will be overseen by, Gio Forino, one of our media volunteers.

If taking on the role sounds like something you're interested in, we strongly encourage you to reach out to Beck, Gio, or our Volunteers Director, Megan Golding. Any of them would love the chance to speak with you about the role or QuadballUK, and even if you don't intend on applying it could be a great insight into how we work and where you might fit in somewhere else.

Beck Throup Steps Down

QuadballUK are welcoming three new(ish!) faces on board as Directors ahead of the university season starting next month! We are proud to officially announce Fran Morris and Emily Hayes as our new Events Co-Directors, and Megan Golding as our Volunteers Director. 

We welcome Fran Morris back to QUK, this time as Co-Events director alongside Emily Hayes from Olympians Quidditch Club. We’re very excited to see the work our Co-Events Directors do!

Overseeing the ever important recruitment and wellbeing of our volunteers is our new volunteers director Megan Golding. Megan follows Josh Fogg, who took on the QUK Presidency back in May and Interim Volunteers Director, Meredith Whiting, who is continuing her work as Assistant Volunteers Director. 

We’re still looking for a new Operations Director to join EMT, as well as a Vice President. If you’re interested in either of these positions, please get in touch!

New Volunteers Director and Co-Events Directors join the Executive Team

Following recent announcements from both Quidditch Europe and the International Quidditch Association, QuidditchUK would like to announce the following clarifications and amendments to our policies for EQC spots, rules amendments, and the 3-max gender rule.

New Gameplay Announcements

As the eagle eyed might have already spotted, we've got a new department! The new technology department will oversee all things tech within QuidditchUK, maintaining and improving our existing infrastructure and exploring how it might be expanded going forward.

This will be headed up by none other than Dec Ramsay, our current technology officer. Dec has been with QUK for over two years now, originally joining as a contractor in December 2019 to work on our website. Over time that transitioned into a permanent volunteer role, with Dec working continuously to better our website with new features and refinements. Dec's hard work here was recognised as media department champion in our 2022 awards.

Creating a new department came through reflecting on QuidditchUK's increasing use of home-grown software solutions behind the scenes. Over the last year we've launched the new scouting programme, membership interface, and Quidditch Scheduler integration. All these are powered by systems built by Dec specifically for QUK. Going forward it'll be advantageous if we can have multiple people working on these to improve our tools and further what we can achieve.

One such new feature is website notifications! If you're logged into the QUK website you'll notice a little bell in the top right corner; this is where you can find all your notifications from us.

We've had feedback from members that not everyone is aware of key dates, such as when transfer windows open and close. At the moment club leadership funnel this information from QUK to members, but during busy periods this can mean important dates are easily missed. Going forward all members will be made aware of this directly through the notifications panel.

The feature has only just launched so for now only covers the transfer window, but we've plans to extend this to cover fixture deadlines, scouting windows, and more! If you have any issues you can open an issue on GitHub or email tech.

Do you know how to code and want to use those skills to help quidditch? Are you interesting in developing the systems which power QUK?  Itching to fix that website bug that's been driving you bananas? Join the technology department!

We're looking for several Technology Officer to join Dec in the new department; if you're interested, just fill out the form below. If you want to take a peak behind the curtains beforehand check out our Github. You can also email Dec if you've any questions about the role.

Dec Ramsay heads new Technology Department

We have been amazed and delighted with the resurgence of quidditch that we have seen post-covid. We have been lucky enough to see some amazing achievements over the last year, including:

Two incredible finals in our very first separate university and community leagues

The first British EQC Division 1 winner in eight years - shout out to Werewolves of London!

A British EQC Division 2 medallist - another shout out to Southsea Quidditch!

... along with so many other amazing achievements, like sponsorship with Comic Con for our BQC livestream, and several new teams starting up in the last few months! This means that there are lots of exciting new projects that we need volunteers for. In order for us to deliver the highest quality events and club services that we know we can, we need some fresh blood to help us be the best we can be. A few of our long-standing senior volunteers are moving on for different reasons you can find below, and these posts will need filling so we can continue to deliver all of our projects and events.

While volunteers in every position are incredibly important, we’re particularly looking for people to step into some leadership roles. These roles are exciting opportunities to learn new skills, get leadership experience early in your career, and make the biggest difference to quidditch as it’s played in the UK!

The following roles are open for applications:

All of these roles are currently filled and have someone performing these duties, but these volunteers are approaching the end of their tenure and we’d love to see some new faces come on board. Fun fact: five members of EMT have been in post for more than two years! And just one member of EMT is from a university team (kudos to Beck Throup!). We'd love to see more volunteers from university teams, as this is a key way of making your voice heard at a high level and making sure that our decisions support all our members.

Anyone with a passion for quidditch and who is ready to learn in their new role! As university members are underrepresented in leadership roles at QuidditchUK, we’d especially love to hear from university members with leadership experience at a club level - as captain, president, coach, or treasurer! However, we consider all applications and experience, so don’t be afraid to apply if you’ve held a different role or you have experience outside of quidditch that would be helpful.

You don’t need years and years of experience to apply! Here are some examples of the experience that current volunteers had before taking on a leadership role:

Josh Fogg (current President, four-year tenure) - four months as an Operations Assistant and one year as President of MUQC 

Abby Whiteley (current Vice President) - one year of captaincy at OUQC and some media volunteering with QuidditchUK and Quidditch Post

Beck Throup (current Media Director) - one year on Bristol committee as Social Media Officer

If you’d like to submit an application, you can fill out our volunteering form below and let us know which role you’re interested in! You can also look here to see further information about the roles we have available. Some roles will be released in the next week or two, so do check back if you don’t see the role you’re interested in. We don’t require a CV - just a short statement of interest outlining why you're interested, and wee'll follow up with an invitation to interview.

If you’d like to know more about what the roles entail, you can get in touch with the current volunteers to find out more. You can find their details below - we're looking forward to hearing from you!

I’m curious - how can I apply or find out more?

Vice President - Abby Whiteley (Oxford Mammoths Quidditch Club), vicepresident@quidditchuk.org

Abby is stepping down from Vice President as she’s been on EMT for three years and she’s looking forward to new volunteering opportunities, including mentoring young people in schools.

Volunteers Director - Meredith Whiting (Oxford Mammoths Quidditch Club), volunteers@quidditchuk.org 

Volunteers Director is vacant because our previous Director, Josh Fogg, was promoted to President! Meredith currently sits here as Assistant Director, but we'd love to see a new face join the team.

Operations Director - Tom Hutton (Phoenix Quidditch Club), operations@quidditchuk.org 

Tom has stepped down from Operations Director as he will be moving to Thailand in the next few months!

Events Director - Omar Coakley (Oxford Mammoths Quidditch Club), events@quidditchuk.org 

Omar is stepping down from Events Director as he is starting a new job which requires lots of travel, which means he’ll need all his energy for getting around the country!

Assistant Media Director - Beck Throup (Bristol Quidditch Club), media@quidditchuk.org 

This role has been vacant for some time; it’s an amazing opportunity to shape our media output at a senior level, and work under the guidance of a Director.

Opportunities to Volunteer with QuidditchUK

Team England have claimed the title of European Champions after a 160* - 140 win against Germany at the IQA European Games in Limerick. The final match, played to a set score, was just one of the highlights from a weekend of European quidditch. 

The European Games saw each of the UK’s national teams - England, Scotland and Wales - take the stage together for the first time, with Wales competing in Group B and England and Scotland in Group D for the day 1 group stages. 

The 2023 World Cup will be held in Richmond, Virginia USA, and QUK are excited to follow our teams on the road to Richmond.

Photos courtesy of Team England, Team Scotland, and Team Wales. 