Small Country, Big Ambition

With the Benelux Cup approaching this weekend, we caught up with the quidditch happenings in Belgium and the Netherlands and previewed this weekend's upcoming tournament.

Belgium Quidditch

By Joke Daems

Despite its size, Belgium is an extremely complex country. It has three official languages (French, Dutch, and German), as many communities and regions, 10 provinces, and six governments. It is perhaps no wonder that the introduction of quidditch into the small country was not straightforward either.

History
Back in July 2012, Cory Faniel, a Belgian living in Scotland, tried to get quidditch off the ground in his home country through the Facebook page 'Belgium Muggle Quidditch.' Faniel, editor-in-chief of the French Potterhead website Gazette du Sorcier, founder of the St. Andrews Snidgets and a current member of the Leeds Griffins, seemed to favor the Potterhead approach in his discourse. He met Zoé Miniconi, future Belgian Quidditch mum, at a Potterheads convention, and they were both interested in bringing quidditch to Belgium. A few months went by without any real quidditch being played in the country of waffles, beer, and chocolate.

Everything changed in 2013. While Faniel's Facebook page had managed to reach a fairly wide—mostly French—audience, Louis Lermytte gathered enough players to start the first Belgian Quidditch team, the Deurne Dodo's in June 2013.

“I got the idea back in May," said Lermytte. "It just seemed like a fun thing to do. I don't even know how we found enough people crazy enough to try it with us."

Though Lermytte managed to find a good number of people willing to try quidditch, he had foreign student Dávid Danos help him out with the first few practices. It makes sense that Danos is often seen as the man who taught Belgians quidditch; he has quite a few years of experience as a beater for the University of British Columbia Quidditch team, was part of the very first Canadian national quidditch team, and has been involved with numerous quidditch organizations. Together with Laurens Grinwis Plaat Stultjes and Miniconi, Danos set out to really get quidditch going in Belgium.

"I remember talking about starting a team in Brussels with Laurens and Dávid,” Miniconi said. “We were building hoops at Dávid's tiny student room a week later."

The first practices in Brussels and Deurne started in August. The core group in Brussels consisted of Danos' Erasmus friends and some friends from Miniconi, who still play today (Damien Leclaire, Pauline Schena, and Tanghi Burlion).

"It all kind of snowballed”, Miniconi said. “People brought along their friends, Dávid was coaching both teams, I took care of communication and rallying students, and Laurens also did an amazing job keeping in touch with other teams."

In Nov. 2013, Belgium hosted the Brussels Muscles Invitational, where seven international teams competed. The two Belgian teams, the punnily named Qwaffles and Beerters, consisted of a mix of players from Brussels and Deurne. While this mix did not seem to be ideal (the Belgian teams lost all their matches), the players had fun, and Belgium got to host the European Quidditch Cup (EQC) in Feb. 2014. This time competing as Brussels Qwaffles and Deurne Dodo's, the Belgian teams performed much better: the Qwaffles took third place, and the Dodo's ended in sixth. This performance qualified both teams for World Cup VII, though neither team attended following Europe's demands for a more international IQA.

Quidditch in Belgium really took off in 2014. As Danos predicted in a 2013 USQ interview, the Belgian Qwaffles dissolved into individual teams, with players creating their own teams or helping new teams in Louvain-la-Neuve, Ghent, and Hasselt. In April, a fantasy quidditch tournament at Elfia (an annual fantasy fair in the Netherlands) attracted quite a few new Belgian players, and in July, 11 brave Belgians (and Jerona) travelled to Burnaby, Canada, to compete in the 2014 Global Games as the Belgian national team, the Belgian Gryffins. Though the Belgian national team did not manage to win a single game, the fact that such a small country managed to send a team alongside countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Mexico showed how determined the Belgians were at becoming a quidditch country to be reckoned with.

The sport continues to grow today, with teams being created in Leuven and Mons. Being so unique, quidditch can count on lots of media attention. It has been featured on the local radio, in newspapers and magazines across the country, made it to the biggest convention of the Benelux, and was even seen on national television. In Jan. 2015, no less than 21 Belgian players competed at the Tournoi International de la Violette in Toulouse as the mercenary team Belgian Blackbeards. Consisting of players from Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve, Ghent, and Mons, the Blackbeards are an ideal example of how quidditch in Belgium manages to overcome all linguistic and regional challenges.

The Belgian Quidditch Federation (BQF) [la Fédération Belge de Quidditch (FBQ) // de Belgische Zwerkbalbond (BZB) // der Belgische Quidditchverband (BQV)] is the national governing body of quidditch in Belgium. Being a fledgling organization, most of 2014 was spent hiring people for the various positions and figuring out the organization’s structure. BQF consists of an executive wing and an administrative wing, the latter consisting of three departments: Gameplay, Teams, and Communications. Danos became the first president of BQF but decided to step down in 2015 due to his physical distance from Belgium. At the time of writing, a new president has yet to be chosen, with Vice President Miniconi being a likely candidate. The executive wing consists of the following positions:
Vice President: Zoé Miniconi
International Relations: Laurens Grinwis Plaat Stultjes & Ellen Vander Heyden
Financial Director: Laura Mailleux
Secretary: Rebecca Baeten
Internal communications officers for the three communities (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels):  currently not assigned (will become relevant in the future)

While the executive wing makes sure the organization runs smoothly, and the VP internals oversee their respective communities, the administrative wing is responsible for the more practical workings of the organization. Each department has its own responsibilities.

The Gameplay Department is led by Director Grinwis Plaat Stultjes, who oversees the various aspects of gameplay in Belgium (coaching, snitching, tournaments, rules, and referees).

"I think we've already accomplished a lot, more than I dared to dream," Plaat Stultjes said. "But I'd like to get an actual competition going, with matches being played on a regular basis."

The Gameplay Department is further strengthened by coaching director Vander Heyden and snitching director Burlion.

The Teams Department covers all things related to membership, expansion, and development. The department is supervised by Director Joke Daems. With 2014-15 being the first season with actual membership programs, most of the time was spent getting all the information out to the teams and helping them figure out the best membership plans. BQF currently offers two types of playing membership (competitive and recreational) and a supporter membership for non-playing members. Players are allowed to join two teams, but only one of those can be a competitive team. The Teams Department helped organize initiations in Leuven, Antwerp, and Bruges and will mainly focus on expansion toward the Walloon region in 2015. Additional goals are the creation of a database containing equipment, fundraising, and other advice to help out beginning and established teams.

The Communications Department is led by Cindy Callens. Hers is the challenging task of managing all types of (social) media and getting the official BQF documentation translated into at least three languages (English, French, and Dutch). Though the Translation & Interpretation Department is in the capable hands of professional translator Caroline Mailleux, the department has to make due with limited resources, which sometimes slows down communication. The most pressing goal of the Communications Department is getting BQF a fully functional website, something which Tech Director Nicolas Volders is currently working on.

Though not all positions are filled yet, the BQF core cabinet is starting 2015 tentatively optimistically.

"I think we're finding a good rhythm for a new organization," Miniconi said. "Especially considering how complex our little country is, I think we're doing a good job figuring out how to communicate and work together."

Grinwis Plaat Stultjes seemed to agree.

"I think BQF is the second best NGB [National Governing Body] in Europe," he said.

Others have a slightly more modest opinion.

"We're still figuring everything out," Callens said. "A lot of things still need to be established for everything to run smoothly."

Vander Heyden confirmed.

"We're young, we still have much to learn,” she said. “The structure is there, but it might be too big for what we need in practice. We tried to do a lot in our first year, but it might be better to focus on the essence first: the communication toward the teams."

An additional challenge BQF faces is the fact that, in Belgium, funds for sports organizations are given at the community level, whereas BQF is a national organization. Though this is a conscious decision—BQF wants to represent all Belgian quidditch players, regardless of community, and show that quidditch can unite people on a national level—it is a decision that could prove problematic for BQF's future growth.

Teams
Deurne Dodo's
President: Louis Lermytte
Coach: Louis Lermytte (A team) / Siebren Maenhout (B team)
Captain: Willem Ardui (A team) / Siebren Maenhout (B team)
Location: Deurne (Antwerp)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeurneDodo
Colors: White and green
BQF membership: Competitive (A team) / recreational (B team)

Created by Lermytte in June 2013, the Dodo's are the oldest team in Belgium, though practices did not start until August, around the same time as the Brussels Qwaffles. The original team consisted of Lermytte's school and scouting friends.

"It all began as a joke," Lermytte said. "We only really became serious about it after we qualified for World Cup."

Their weekly practices became well-attended, and the team rapidly improved. Having lost 100*-70 to the Qwaffles during European Quidditch Cup (EQC) II, the Dodo's beat the Qwaffles 240*-10 only two months later. Though the players are younger than most in Belgium (the average Dodo is 17 years old), they are certainly among the better players, and they aim high.

"We want to win the Benelux Cup as well as the Belgian Series, and we'd like to reach the winners bracket at EQC III," Lermytte said.

With over 25 official members, the Dodo's registered two teams with BQF for the 2014-15 season: a competitive A team and a recreational B team. With a lot of players graduating this season and the B team needing a few extra non-male players to be able to compete at a higher level, it remains to be seen whether the Dodo's will be able to keep both teams next season.

Players to watch out for: Seppe De Wit (chaser/keeper), Willem Ardui (chaser/keeper), Elisabeth Reyniers (beater), and Faust Eeckhout (beater)
Best team memory: first win at EQC II against Milano Meneghins

Brussels Qwaffles
President: Laura Mailleux
Coach: Tanghi Burlion
Captain: Marc Bourgeois
Location: Brussels (Brussels)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brusselsqwaffles
Colors: Red and green
BQF membership: Competitive

Starting practices around the same time as the Deurne Dodo's, the Brussels Qwaffles were the direct result of Faniel, Miniconi, Danos, and Grinwis Plaat Stultjes' efforts to launch quidditch in Belgium. What began as a bunch of friends from the people involved turned into a force to be reckoned with on the European quidditch scene. The Qwaffles took third place at EQC II and are looking forward to improving their performance during the upcoming EQC III in Oxford, UK. Though they lost many of their star players due to the growth of quidditch in Belgium—with many players setting off to start their own teams or help teams get started—Mailleux has high hopes for the future of the team.

"After last EQC, we lost focus a bit, but we're behaving like an actual team now,” Mailleux said. “Our goal is to kick ass and be the team we were last year, only better."

Players to watch out for: Tanghi Burlion (chaser, beater, seeker), Damien Leclaire (beater), Moussa Fall (beater, chaser, seeker), and Marc Bourgeois (chaser, keeper, seeker)
Best team memory: qualifying for World Cup after EQC II

UMonsters
President: Lucie Hirsoux
Coach: Pauline Schena
Captain: Pauline Schena
Location: Mons (Hainaut)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UMonsters.Quidditch
Colors: Purple and white
BQF membership: Recreational

The UMonsters were created after a quidditch initiation by Danos at the University of Mons. A few interested players took matters into their own hands, and with the help of some players from Brussels, such as Burlion, the team grew stronger. The team also benefited from the university's financial support. In contrast with the USA—where most teams are affiliated with universities—most Belgian teams are community teams, making the UMonsters a peculiar team. With only eight registered players at the time of writing, they are also the smallest team. Though what they lack in numbers, they make up for in heart.

"Being a good quidditch players isn't about scoring goals,” said Hirsoux. “It's about having the 'quidditch spirit,' that sense of community and respect. In a country like Belgium, where political tensions between the two language regions are common, quidditch allows us to strengthen the ties that unite us, to bring together two parts of the same heart, from the same country which some people are trying to separate.”

She mentioned Qwaffles player Moussa Fall in particular as being someone who has helped their team both on and off pitch. However, the UMonsters themselves clearly show the quidditch spirit as well.

"I was impressed at how much potential they had after just a few weeks," Schena said. "For example, Manon was really shy about tackling at first. But during our first game against Louvain-La-Neuve, she tackled their keeper."

Another player Schena is proud of is her new co-coach, Lloyd Colart.

"He's amazing,” she said. “He really gave it his all from the start, always looking things up, keeping me informed about new tactics and exercises. He went to Brussels a few times to get to know the team and learn new things. He's the one person I know I could not go on without now."

Players to watch out for: Manon Cobut de Haan (chaser), Charlotte Hendryks (chaser), and Lloyd Colart (keeper)
Best team memory: the feeling of unity after only a few months, being part of such an amazing community of people

Ghent Gargoyles Quidditch Club
President: Joke Daems
Coach: Ellen Vander Heyden
Captain: Joke Daems
Location: Ghent (East Flanders)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GhentGargoyles
Website: www.ghentgargoyles.be
Colors: Teal and gray
BQF membership: Competitive

While there were some attempts to get a Ghent team going as early as Sept. 2013, it was not until April 2014 that these attempts turned into something more successful. The Ghent Facebook group saw a surge in interest after a fantasy tournament in the Netherlands (the WizardWear quidditch cup at Elfia). A few players from the Brussels Qwaffles organized the first practices in May and decided to become full-time Gargoyles afterwards. The team played its first friendly match against the Deurne Dodo's B team in September, and most players have participated in at least one international tournament since then. While officially registered as a player herself, coach Vander Heyden tends to stay off pitch to guide her team during games. She sees the Gargoyles as a team with great potential.

"The level of gameplay is fairly high,” she said. “We have a strong chaser lineup and beaters who know how to work together."

Though still relatively new to the game, Gargoyles' seeker Arne Van Bel managed to catch the snitch in 10 seconds at Valentine's Cup 2015, said to be the third fastest catch in UK quidditch history.

The average Gargoyle shows commitment off pitch as well as on pitch. Four players hold positions in the Belgian Quidditch Federation (Callens, Daems, Grinwis Plaat Stultjes, and Vander Heyden), and 10 players have obtained some sort of IRDP certification for the 2014-15 season (which is more than the total number of certified referees in other Belgian teams). The Gargoyles are especially proud of their (social) media miracle worker Callens, who maintains the website and has gotten Ghent Gargoyles Quidditch Club featured in various printed and digital media. While the team has been having some trouble to get officially recognized by the city, it has managed to secure some funds and is looking forward to organizing its own tournament this summer.

Players to watch out for: Cindy Callens (beater), Nicolas Volders (chaser, keeper, seeker; also plays for Leuven Leprechauns), and Eli Van den Bulcke (keeper)
Best team memory: winning the second game against the Deurne Dodo's B team 90*-30

Hasselt Horntails
President: Jana Meers
Coach: Jana Meers
Captain: Inke Gieghase
Location: Hasselt (Limburg)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quidditchhasselt
Colors: Black and yellow
BQF membership: Recreational

A team created by a Qwaffle and a Dodo, the Horntails are finding it a little hard to find enough non-female players to front a full team. They began playing in Aug. 2014 and have regular practice each Saturday. Captain Gieghase is modest but positive:

"We're a fairly new team, and we'll only be playing our first tournament in February,” Gieghase said. “The atmosphere is really good, though, and we always have a lot of fun. But we really need more players to become competitive, so that's definitely a goal for the future."

The organization seems to be well thought out, with Meers taking up the position of president, coach, and PR-liaison, Gieghase performing the duties of vice-president, treasurer, and captain, and Maartje Martens as creative designer.

Player to watch out for: Inke Gieghase (beater; also plays for Deurne Dodo's A)
Best team memory: all the quove

Les Dracognards / Quidditch Louvain-la-Neuve
President: Nicolas Hanot
Coach: Pauline Berger
Captain: Nicolas Hanot
Location: Louvain-la-Neuve (Walloon Brabant)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuidditchLLN
Colors: Electric blue
BQF membership: Recreational

In Sept. 2014, Hanot decided he wanted to start a quidditch team at his university. There had been some interest before, but nothing really happened until Hanot and Berger took matters into their own hands and created les Dracognards ('cognard' being the French word for 'bludger'). Being a mix between university and community team, les Dracognards can count on the support of the city as well as the university (Université catholique de Louvain).

"We have a very diverse group of players," Hanot said. "There's an actress, a jeweler, a cabinetmaker, and a chaplain."

Les Dracognards are currently testing the waters by playing friendly matches against as many teams as possible. They won games against UMonsters and the Horntails but lost against the Qwaffles. Some les Dracognards members also participated in the Tournoi de la Violette in Toulouse. Though the team is young, coach Berger is confident.

"We have a few really strong players,” Berger said. “We haven't played enough yet, but there has definitely been a lot of progress in a short time."

Les Dracognards seem to be well-organized with a secretary (Pauline Viseur), treasurer (Amandine Willame), accountant (Maxime Debruxelles), and someone for external relations (François Veldekens) on top of the president and coach functions fulfilled by Hanot and Berger. The team is especially looking forward to its (unofficial) tournament in March, the North Cup, where 12 teams from four nations (Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany) will compete. Les Dracognards hope to become a competitive team by next season.

Players to watch out for: Florian Dion (chaser), and Jérémy Ladang (keeper)
Best team memory: getting a real field, winning the first game, playing for the Belgian Blackbeards in Toulouse

Leuven Leprechauns
President: Vinni Versonnen
Coach: Nicolas Volders
Captain: Nicolas Volders
Location: Leuven (Flemish Brabant)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeuvenLeprechauns
Colors: Orange and green
BQF membership: Recreational
Although the Leprechauns are Belgium's youngest team, they are certainly not to be underestimated. Charismatic captain/coach Volders is new to the quidditch scene, but he has shown remarkable commitment since day one. He has attended practices from all Belgian teams to get to know the players and has already secured a position in the Belgian Quidditch Federation as head of the tech department. And he makes a decent snitch to boot. The team was created in Nov. 2014, with the initiation being given by Louis Lermytte from the Deurne Dodo's. Since then, the team has been practicing regularly (depending on availability of the players on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) with Volders coaching them.

“Right now, we just want to learn and have fun,” Volders said. “But it's going pretty fast. We'll already be giving initiations, and there'll be reporters attending our next practice.”  

The organization consists of Vinni Versonnen as president, Rebecca Baeten as secretary, and Wendy Urbain as treasurer.

Player to watch out for: Nicolas Volders (chaser, keeper, seeker; also plays for the Ghent Gargoyles)
Best team memory: the initiation, when it all began

Bruges (starting)
BQF's presence at F.A.C.T.S., the biggest science fiction, fantasy, and comics convention in the Benelux, drew the attention of many visitors. While some of them joined existing teams, a few people living in Bruges wanted to start a team closer to home. Things became more serious when Charlotte Geerolf, Magalie Mahieu, and Annelien Petillion planned a first initiation with BQF in December. Things have been a little slow due to exams, but the team will be having a second practice in February, and is hoping to get some more players soon. It is too early to say how the team will evolve, but the people seem motivated and capable. Their diverse backgrounds could be the ideal mix to get this team started. Geerolf works as an educator and is currently functioning as president, Petillion is an applied psychology student, and Mahieu has experience as a sports organizer and teacher.

Competition
The regular competition is called the Belgian Series. There are no fixed schedules, though competitive teams are required to play three official matches during the season, and recreational teams are required to play at least one official match. The rankings of the Belgian Series determine the seeding of the Belgian Championship. All Belgian teams compete in the Belgian Championship to determine who the best Belgian team is. Gameplay Director Grinwis Plaat Stultjes wishes to have official games on a monthly—and, in the future, weekly-basis. 

Other than the Belgian Championship, there is also the Benelux Cup (BNLC), where the best Belgian and best Dutch teams compete, as Luxembourg does not currently have a team. The first BNLC will be held on Feb. 28, 2015 in Deurne. The three competitive Belgian teams—Deurne Dodo's, Brussels Qwaffles, and Ghent Gargoyles—will compete with two Dutch teams, the North Sea Nargles and the WURwolves.

Quidditch in the Netherlands
By Rein Anspach

Jerona van der Gevel, one of the founders of the Dutch National Governing Body (NGB) Muggle Quidditch Nederland, learned about quidditch in summer of 2012 through the internet. While she was in school in Norwich, joined the Nifflers, a team that had just started that year: their first practices included someone having to hold up the hoops. When she returned in early 2013 she wanted to keep playing, but felt like she was the only one. Upon contacting the IQA she found out that there was a team registered in Amsterdam (the so-called ‘Amazing Killer Teddybears’), but they turned out to have discontinued their existence and were not interested in restarting. Around that time Dávid Danos had announced in the Quidditch UK Facebook group that he was bringing brooms and balls to Belgium; she ordered a broom and a while later got a message telling her that she could come pick it up. This was her cue to attend Brussels Muscles in Nov. 2013. She stayed in contact with Dávid and in Jan. 2014 the MQN Facebook page was born.Through Facebook she also came into contact with Bram Vries who had also been thinking of setting up Quidditch in the Netherlands, and from there on they worked together. They went to the 2014 European Quidditch Championship as mercs for NTNUI, enabling them to get their first reffing experience and to meet a huge amount of other players. Upon finding out WizardWear was advertising their quidditch tournament at Elfia as ‘the first one in europe’, they contacted the organisation and subsequently got a bunch of free tickets so they could invite a lot of players. In the end the Dodo’s attended as a team, together with other Belgian and even French players and a lot of new players, together forming four teams and making a fantasy tournament possible. A scouting building was hired as accommodation, enabling a lot of bonding experiences. Jerona and Bram decided that the hype from Elfia should be used to start something, so they set up a series of events, consisting of three open practises and ending with a match. The training in Amsterdam was a success and has been continued ever since, eventually spawning the team that is now the North Sea Nargles. The first match was Amsterdam against NILS, a team from Utrecht that had already started up before Elfia.

When in June it became clear that the position of the IQA was going to change significantly, the MQN was set up officially with assistance from Dávid, first posting job openings and forming a board, later setting up a proper website. On Nov. 22, 2014 the Placeholder Cup was played, exactly five months after the first friendly match on Dutch soil. This event was a stand-in for the future national cup and consisted of three fantasy teams, put together with a bidding system. Currently the Netherlands has two teams preparing for EQC, the Northsea Nargles and the WURwolves. In April there will be selections for a national team, to be sent to the European games. There will also be another quidditch event at Elfia.

The biggest challenge the MQN is currently facing is that they are still in the process of setting things up, while they’re also expected to be professional enough to organise tournaments and have their policies in order. It helps, however, that Belgium and Germany are in the same kind of situation and can help.

How Jerona sees Quidditch in the Netherlands in five years:
There should be teams in all big cities, a systematical national competition with clear rankings, and even more international competition. MQN should have grown and have a lot more subcommittees to make all this possible.  

Benelux Cup Preview

By Nathan Wilputte

This will be an interesting quidditch year in the Benelux. For the first time ever, there will be a battle for the title of Champion. This weekend, five teams from Belgium and the Netherlands will come together in Deurne to see who will go home with the trophy.

Deurne Dodo

This team definitely has a chance of winning the tournament. They’ve improved a lot since the European Quidditch Cup (EQC) last year, not only as a team but also individual players.

Their captain, Ardui Willem, can count on players like Inke Gighase and Seppe De Wit. Gighase is a talented beater who has a lot of experience from going to EQC 2014 and Global Games, while De Wit proved once again how good he was at Valentines Cup: The Revenge of the Quove, where he finished second with his team Gorik or Die Trying.

Brussels Qwaffles

Next to Deurne, this is the oldest team in Belgium. A lot of players who have formed new teams all over Belgium once played with this team, and while the Qwaffles have lost players to said teams, they can still hold their own. They're definitely a force to be reckoned with. Big names are Tanghi Burlion (utility player, snitch, coach), Nathan Wilputte (a very energetic point chaser), and Damien Evasto (a very talented beater).

They're going to put up a fight.

Ghent Gargoyles

The Gargoyles started practicing in August, so Benelux Cup will be their first official cup as a team. On paper it’s a new team, but don’t be fooled; everyone will have to pay attention to them. Coached by Ellen Vander Heyden, an ex-Qwaffles player, the Gargoyles received one of the best strategic trainings in Belgium. The team can also count on a few strong players, including Ruth D’Hoore, who could gain experience by doing few cups, and Eli Van den Bulcke, who will provide a good and strong defence as a keeper.

North Sea Nargles

Founded last April, the North Sea Nargles are one of the two teams coming from the Netherlands. Benelux Cup will give the team the chance to show how strong it is. For this, the Nargles will be able to count on players like Bram Vries, who is their “star” chaser, and Hanna Bouma will be a danger for other teams with her speed and agility. The team won a few matches in the Netherlands, and they train hard, which is a signal for other teams: don’t think it will be easy.

Wageningen WURwolves

Wageningen WURwolves is the other Netherlands team attending the tournament. They started around September/October, and Benelux Cup will be their very first test of skill. Even if we don’t know a lot about them, there are some players who will promise to be a challenge. Juliane Schilinger is a fast and agile player (nominated as candidate for the best non-male chaser by the Quidditch Post), and Nick van Klaveren is a very strong and aggressive keeper/chaser.

Coaches Poll

Six coaches from Belgium and the Netherlands were asked to rank the top three teams in the two federations. All six voters ranked Deurne as the top team and voters were evenly split between Ghent and Brussels in second with three voters going for each team in second and three voters picking each team third.