  |
||||
 Looking west toward Avenger Field, a former Army Air Force base, now Sweetwater's municipal airport.  A close-up of the sign posted on Mr. P's ranch at the approximate location of his sightings.  A view looking northeastward, showing the suspected entrance to the quidditch pitch. |
The Pride of Texas Quidditch |
|||
|
What do we know about the Sweetwater All-Stars? Alas, as muggles, we know very little. According to Kennilworthy Whisp, in his book, Quidditch Through the Ages, the Sweetwater All-Stars are one of the few World Quidditch Cup League teams active in North America, and in one WQCL semifinal game defeated the Quiberian Quafflepunchers in a "thriller" lasting five days. A quidditch team of this caliber must be highly practiced and trained, but must do so under the cloak of charms and spells that make them invisible to muggles. What better place for such a team to train than in the sparsely-populated rolling plains of West Texas? I spoke with several Sweetwater area residents, including a cattle rancher whom I will call Mr. P, whose ranchland adjoins the Army Corps of Engineers land where Sweetwater's municipal airport, Avenger Field, is located just west of the town. He told me that he has, on several occasions, seen what he described as "big, flyin' thangs" flickering in and out of view on clear days, high in the sky near Avenger Field. At first, he told me, he thought that they were radio-controlled model aircraft, as he had given permission to the Sweetwater Model Aircraft Club to fly their craft on his land. However, he could see no operators on the ground at the time. Subsequent sightings revealed that the "flyin' thangs" were wearing blue capes or robes, but sometimes other colors could be seen. Hence, we may deduce that the uniform of the Sweetwater All-Stars must be predominantly blue, reflecting the blue field of the Texas Lone Star Flag. (What a perfect cover for the chance flyout from the charm field protecting the teams' invisibility! Should a player accidentally escape from the massive net of spells protecting the game or practice from muggle view, the sighting could be easily explained away as a rogue R/C experimental model aircraft! One wonders if perhaps the model aircraft club itself is merely a wizard liaison between the quidditch club and the muggle world in which it operates.) Too coincidentally, located only a few yards from the signpost a small, abandoned shed made of corrugated metal. We have anecdotal evidence that wizards enter the competition pitch through a portal that seems to muggle eyes to be only a "garden shed" or some such structure. I did not attempt to enter this building; if the charms could not hold me back in my earnest enthusiasm, certainly the barbed wire did. However, this is not the only quidditch field in the Sweetwater area. Another resident provided a tip that led to the other side of town, where many of the All-Stars play an extreme version of the game, for fun and for more rigorous training. Please click here to view the next slide in the presentation. |
||||
