"Rumours that a posse of Nigerian warlocks is currently heading for the Thunderbolt Headquarters in Manchester, England, have not been confirmed."
-- Ginny Weasley, Daily Prophet (10 June 2014)
Thunderbolt VII brooms were ridden by the Nigeria National Team at the Quidditch World Cup in 2014. Thunderbolt Broom Manufacturers have a bad reputation for designing brooms that favour speed over safety (Pm).
After the tail of a Thunderbolt VII broom disintegrated when hit by a Bludger during the Japan v Nigeria quarter-final match, an official inquiry took place (Pm).
Commentary
Notes
The Thunderbolt brooms are "a competitor to the Firebolt series" (Pm), but the company and designers should have ironed out the safety problems much earlier (certainly before selling version 7 to the Nigerian team), as the very public failure at the 2014 Quidditch World Cup will have not been a good advertisement!
Lexicon list of Broom Manufacturers
From the Web
Writing by J.K. Rowling on Pottermore:
- History of the Quidditch World Cup
- 2014 Quidditch World Cup reports
- 2014 Quidditch World Cup final
- The Daily Prophet
Pottermore enhanced reading experience: Quidditch World Cup
Screenshots of the original Daily Prophet coverage of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup on Pottermore: Imgur archive
Pensieve (Comments)
Tags: broken dangerous racing brooms safety speed