The Pitch

1. The Quidditch pitch will be marked on the floor; the boundaries will be defined by planes parallel to the room's walls, approximately six to eight feet from those walls. Spectators are required to remain within two feet of the walls at all times and must not enter the pitch. Referees and neutral participants should not enter the pitch except as directed, but may approach the boundaries freely.

2. The goal posts will be erected on the distant boundaries. They will be arranged approximately four feet from the ground on each side as identically as possible. One will be placed as close to the centre of the room while remaining on the boundary line; the others will be at a distance of nine feet from the centre post on either side.

3. The scoring area will be defined by an area six feet long and the full width of the pitch at each end. The Keeper must remain in the scoring area at all times. Chasers may only enter the scoring area when carrying the Quaffle. Beaters and Seekers may not enter the scoring area.

4. The lighting conditions applied to the pitch may vary to simulate the fact that Quidditch is a game which may be played overnight if the Golden Snitch is not found sufficiently quickly. Team captains may petition a referee for time out in the case of inclement playing conditions, which may be awarded at the referee's discretion.

5. The referees' decisions are final, binding and not subject to appeal. The referees know much more about the 700 possible fouls than the players do and never ever make a mistake about what any of them are called, even if the reasoning behind the names of the fouls called may not be immediately obvious.

B. PARTICIPANTS

6. Each team will be made up of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker. Team players may be redistributed among teams in case of uneven distribution or inequity. If there are fewer than 28 team players available, we will reduce the number of chasers and/or beaters appropriately. Substitutions within the game will only be permitted if we have at least twice as many participants who wish to play as team players as we have positions available.

7. There will additionally be neutral participants who are not aligned to any team. These are referees, snitch-movers and bludger-movers. Optionally there may also be commentators and goalpost-bearers who are not intended to have an effect on the play of the game.

8. There will be a team of between two and four snitch-movers during each game, who are aligned with neither team. Their job is to move the snitch and any decoy snitches which are in play, so that they might be caught by the Seekers. Any of the snitch-movers may be either on or off the pitch at any time; each should independently aim to spend approximately half their time on the pitch, with a bias towards less time spent on-pitch at the start of the game and more time spent on-pitch at the end of the game. The snitch-movers will be distinctively clothed for ease of identification.

9. There will be a team of between two and four bludger-movers during the game, who are aligned with neither team. Their job is to move the bludgers into play at the start of the game before the Beaters move them around, and to ensure that any bludgers which move out of play are returned to play in a neutral fashion. The bludger-movers will not enter the pitch at any point except to rescue a bludger which has halted in the scoring area.

10. There will be a team of at least four referees during the game, who are aligned with neither team. Their job is to identify infractions of the rules, then stop and restart play as appropriate. They are also responsible for safeguarding the players and the spectators, along with immediately stopping the action if there is any safety risk to player or spectator. Referees will remain off the pitch unless there is conflict between them and there needs to be communication between them to solve the dispute. A head referee may be assigned but each referee will generally be assigned a section of the pitch in which their jurisdiction is deemed authoritative.

C. GAMEPLAY: THE QUAFFLE

11. At the start of each game and after each goal is scored, each seeker and all the chasers must return to their half of the field. One referee will throw the Quaffle horizontally across the pitch as neutrally as possible to introduce the Quaffle into the game.

12. It is said there are over 700 ways to commit a foul in Quidditch and that they are not all listed in the rules for fear of giving teams ideas. Nevertheless, teams should note that the following are prominent among them:

a) Travelling: Chasers may not move either foot that is in contact with the ground while holding the Quaffle. (Keepers may move freely while holding the Quaffle.)

b) Tossing: passes may not be made overarm.

c) Knocking: the Quaffle may not be advanced up the pitch other than through an underarm pass - it may not be struck, headed or kicked. Bounce passes and rolled Quaffles are acceptable, as are Quaffles inadvertently knocked back towards your team's own goals.

d) Ejecting: the Quaffle may not be thrown across the boundary of the pitch.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for any of the above offences is transfer of the Quaffle to a Chaser on the opposing team at the point of offence. All opposing chasers must retreat so that they are no closer to the opponent's goals than the Quaffle and that they are not within six feet of the Chaser.

e) Crossing: no Keeper may leave the scoring area at any point, no Chaser may enter the scoring area without the Quaffle and neither Seeker nor Beater may enter the scoring area. Grounding any part of either foot inappropriately constitutes an offence.

f) Challenging: no player may attempt to play the Quaffle off an member of the opposing team in order to induce them to commit a knocking offence.

g) Colliding: all players must make all efforts possible to avoid accidental contact with members of the opposite team. Accidental contact may be an offence if a referee judges that one player has taken significantly less care than the other to avoid it.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for any of the above offences is a penalty throw. The Quaffle is handed to any chaser of the opposite team who may move to any position on the pitch of their choice outside the scoring area without impedance before play resumes. All opposing chasers must retreat so that they are no closer to the opponent's goals than the Quaffle and that they are not within six feet of the Chaser.

h) Striking: no player may deliberately induce contact with another player.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for the above offence is immediate removal from the game without replacement.

13. Each time a Chaser throws the Quaffle through one of the opposing team's goals then team receives 10 points.

D. GAMEPLAY: THE BLUDGERS

14. Each Beater will be armed with a bat to deflect the bludgers towards members of the opposing team. Beaters may not leave the field of play to retrieve bludgers which cross the boundary; instead, the bludger-movers will return the bludgers to the field of play neutrally.

15. Should a bludger touch a player, they must immediately raise both hands above their head and are frozen to the spot for ten seconds. Nearby spectators counting out loud down from ten to zero have jurisdiction in measuring this.

16. Bludger-related offences include:

i) Malbeating: the bludger may not be deliberately moved other than with the bat.

j) Malbatting: the bat may not be used to strike anything other than a Bludger.

k) Interfering: the bludger may not be moved when a penalty throw has been awarded but the Quaffle has not yet been thrown or when the Quaffle is out of play.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for any of the above offences is a penalty throw. The Quaffle is handed to any chaser of the opposite team who may move to any position on the pitch of their choice outside the scoring area without impedance before play resumes. All opposing chasers must retreat so that they are no closer to the opponent's goals than the Quaffle and that they are not within six feet of the Chaser.

l) Disdaining: players may not ignore the effect of a bludger.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for the above offence is either removal from the game for a minute or the award of 5 to 25 points to the opposing team.

17. Any of the snitch-movers may or may not be in posession of either the Golden Snitch and/or a decoy snitch. The snitch-movers are encouraged to bring either or both of these onto the pitch at any point, holding them by fingertips only so that a suitably dextrous seeker might pluck the snitch from their grasp. Snitch-movers may hand either the Golden Snitch and/or a decoy snitch to each other at any point, whether on the pitch or off it.

18. The Seekers must pluck a snitch cleanly out of the grasp of the snitch-movers. If they manage this, the game immediately stops to see whether the snitch grabbed is the real Golden Snitch or a decoy snitch. Decoy snitches grabbed may be removed from the game at the referee's discretion on temporal concerns or may be returned to any snitch-mover.

19. Snitch-related offences include:

m) Jostling: contact with the snitch-movers as opposed to the snitch.

n) Trespassing: leaving the field of play and/or attempting to grab a snitch which is off the pitch.

o) Transgressing: any attempt by any other player apart from a Seeker to interfere with the Snitch or any Snitch-mover.

All penalties are at the referees' discretion, but the usual penalty for any of the above offences is either removal from the game for a minute or the award of 5 to 25 points to the opposing team.

20. When a Seeker cleanly grabs the Golden Snitch from the grasp of the snitch-mover who had it, they score 150 points for their team and conclude the game.