"To the jubilation of a packed crowd of black-clad Bat fans last night, Ballycastle beat League leaders, the Tornados...."
-- match report in the Daily Prophet (DP2)
The Ballycastle Bats are a Quidditch team hailing from Ballycastle in Northern Ireland. They are considered to be Northern Ireland’s most celebrated team (QA7).
robes: black with scarlet bat on the chest
home: Ballycastle
mascot: Barny the Fruitbat (QA7)
Notes
The Bats won the Quidditch League twenty-seven times, making it the second most successful team in league history (QA7). Fans of the team usually wear black (DP2).
Their fruitbat mascot Barny appears in the advertisements for Butterbeer: Batty says: I’m just batty about Butterbeer! (QA7).
Captain (1990s): Finbar Quigley (DP2).
The Bats beat league leaders, the Tutshill Tornados, following some suspicious Bludger work by team captain Quigley (DP2).
While reading the book Flying with the Cannons, Harry Potter watches a photo of Cannons Beater Joey Jenkins hitting a Bludger at one of the Chasers on the Ballycastle Bats team (GF22).
Commentary
Notes
Ballycastle, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, has hurling and Gaelic football teams listed in its Wikipedia entry, and even mentions Quidditch (Wikipedia).
Lexicon list of British and Irish Quidditch teams
Although the dates printed on the Daily Prophet Newsletters are:
the timeframe for these events is 1992-1993.
From the Web
Writing by J K Rowling on WizardingWorld.com (Pottermore): The Daily Prophet
WizardingWorld.com (Pottermore) features:
- The British and Irish Quidditch League
- British and Irish Quidditch teams to support
- Things you might not know about Quidditch
- Quidditch Through the Ages
Harry Potter Wiki: Ballycastle Bats
Pensieve (Comments)
Tags: black competitions/competitors flying league table match red scarlet successful teams