Courtesy/IQA

Special to the Las Alamos Daily Post

Quidditch (the game in the Harry Potter books) comes to New Mexico this weekend.

The West by Southwest Showcase will feature a number of university and mercenary (club) teams in a regional competition sponsored by the IQA, the International Quidditch Association.

Caroline Wurden from Los Alamos will be in New Mexico to be a referee for the games. She is a member of Cal Quidditch (Berkeley) and a former co-captain.

More recently, Wurden has served as a referee. She helped develop referee materials for the IQA and is also a trainer for new refs.

The New Mexico Quidditch will be held Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10 and 11, at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque.

There are hundreds of university teams across the U.S. and internationally. The players run around the field with brooms, and the golden snitch is a person dressed in yellow or gold.

There has been a World Cup for years, started by Middlebury College, which is still a powerhouse team. Last year the World Cup was in New York City. This spring it will be in Florida.

The regional tournaments determine standings for each team, and that information further determines who will go to the World Cup.

It’s fun, lively and entertaining and the community is invited to attend!

For more details on quidditch and the showcase, go to www.internationalquidditch.org and then click on NEWS and in the right column click on Full Events Calendar.

Scroll down and then click on the West by Southwest Showcase for either Nov. 10 or 11. That will bring up the Facebook page with more details.