Running, with the stick between his legs and only one hand free, he is ill-equipped to catch the ball when it comes at him sharply from the left.

It hits his outstretched arm, bounces into his goggles, then drops to the grass.

It is hardly a magical sight, but these are the realities when Quidditch, the sport of wizards, is adopted by earthbound university students.

The Wollongong Warriors are the Quidditch players of the University of Wollongong (UOW), one of about 20 university and community teams in Australia to take up what was once a fictitious Harry Potter sport.

The Warriors are preparing for the upcoming gaming convention Gong Con, at the university on July 28-29.

The team's efforts at the convention include exhibition games aimed at boosting recruitment. More players are needed to build up the Friday afternoon house league planned for next session, where four teams named after the school houses of Harry's world - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin - will face off.

Membership in the team's umbrella group, the UOW Harry Potter Society, soared to more than 200 last year, making it one of the biggest clubs on campus.

Slytherin president Brandon Heldt believes he helped things by promoting the society's ratio of men to women (4.4:1)

"My last two girlfriends have both been from the society," he said.

Society president Alice Beasley, 20, said some universities held try-outs for their teams and took it quite seriously, but the Warriors played for fun.

"I don't even know if I would call it a sport," she said.

"It's hard to run around on a broom and not look slightly ridiculous but you get used to it." Alice plays on a specially crafted broom with rainbow bamboo fronds and a badger on the end to symbolise her membership in Hufflepuff.

The rules of Quidditch have been adapted for non-magical "muggles".

The snitch is a human with a tennis ball in a sock attached to their back. Capture of this ball ends the game.

Bludgers are heavy dodge balls hurled by two beaters at three opposing chasers, who pass the lighter quaffle ball to each other in pursuit of a goal.

Chasers have to run to their line and back if struck by a beater.

The "sport" of Quidditch has players in the United States, Canada, France and Britain and even has its own World Cup.

Members of the Australian National University side and from Victorian universities are competing at the Quidditch Olympics in July, in the lead-up to the London Olympics.