It’s a chicken! Haha! Actually, it’s the Reading Rocs Quidditch Team’s mascot. It’s not a Roc, but the idea of ‘shooing the chicken’ came about from our warm-up exercises from the British Quidditch Cup, which involve the usual movements named after various chicken activities (eg. a lunge is ‘reach for the chicken’). Shooing the chicken – the hamstring stretch – is our favourite and soon became a battlecry.
S/He (Shoo the Chicken is of indeterminate gender) comes to practise most weeks, and this was taken after yesterday’s muddy exploits when we relaxed with a late lunch at the local cafe. The sun caught the top of Shoo’s head as s/he sat on our table, and cast a perfect shadow I couldn’t resist snapping up.
In case you’re wondering, the shirt s/he’s wearing is a mock of our kit, the red Reading colours (!) and the logo above the heart with a Snitch and an eagle. Like us, Shoo’s name is on the back, above her/his number: π. Because that’s the kind of black humour we here have.
Alexandrina Brant 