"....a team up near Barnton, they've got these minuscule little baskets attached to the opposing team's posts, you couldn't get a grape in them."
-- Ministry spokesman quoted in the Daily Prophet, 12 February 1883 (QA6)
The Barnton Quidditch team is an amateur team which hails from the small village of Barnton in the county of Cheshire (located east of Liverpool) in North-West England.
According to an article entitled “Bring Back our Baskets!” in the Daily Prophet, the Barnton team had goals made of different sized baskets prior to 1883. Those for their opponents were tiny while their own were “great wicker caves” which were easy to score into. In 1883, the Department of Magical Games and Sports changed the rules and replaced baskets with standard sized hoops (QA6).
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Notes
Barnton, a village near Northwich in Cheshire, has football and cricket teams in its Wikipedia listing (but not any Quidditch) (Wikipedia).
From the Web
Writing by J K Rowling on WizardingWorld (Pottermore): The Daily Prophet
WizardingWorld (Pottermore) features:
Harry Potter Wiki: Barnton Amateur Quidditch Team
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Tags: cheating fairness goals Quidditch traditions standards teams tradition village