Royston Idlewind

"​[The crowd is] the only thing I don't like about Quidditch."

- Royston Idlewind in 1971. Royston Idlewind was a former Quidditch player in the 1960s, the star Chaser of the Australian team. In 1971, he was appointed International Director of the International Confederation of Wizards Quidditch Committee, but later resigned after the draconian regulations regarding crowd control he imposed were flouted en masse by the spectators of the final of the Quidditch World Cup in 1974.

Quidditch career
Royston Idlewind was born in Australia, sometime before 1949. In the 1960s, he was "Australia's star Chaser" — in which capacity he was noted to have endured many jinxes, something that fuelled his dislike of spectator crowds later in his life.

He was also part of the winning Australian squad during the 1966 Quidditch World Cup.

As International Director of the ICWQC
In 1971, Royston Idlewind was named International Director of the International Confederation of Wizards Quidditch Committee. Upon his contentious appointment, he immediately issued the statement that the only thing he disliked about Quidditch was the crowds, thus gaining the wizarding world's dislike and distrust — this petty dislike soon turned into outright hostility when Idlewind passed a number of draconian regulations on crowd control, the worst of which was the ban of all wands from the stadium except those carried by ICWQC officials.

Many fans threatened to boycott the 1974 Quidditch World Cup in protest, but seeing as empty stands were Idlewind's secret ambition, their strategy was not effective. The World Cup duly commenced and the crowds that attended carried with them not their wands, but a new style of musical instrument called a Dissimulator: a tube-like object that issued bright lights and colourful puffs of smoke in national colours and emitted loud cheers for the teams being supported. For the first few matches of the tournament, very few wizards showed up, but those that did brought along Dissimulators, enlivening the match considerably. The Dissimulator craze grew, as did the crowds.

On the day of the final match between Syria and Madagascar, the stands were packed with a record crowd of wizards, each carrying his own Dissimulator. When Royston Idlewind appeared in the Top Box, a hundred thousand Dissimulators emitted loud raspberries turned back instantly into the wands they had been concealing all along. Humiliated by the mass flouting of his pet law, Royston Idlewind resigned immediately, among celebrations.

Later life
"A wand ban doesn't look so stupid now, does it?"

- Royston Idlewind, quoted by the Daily Prophet, August, 1994.

Idlewind seemed to have retired from public life sometime after that. After the incident of the Reappearance of the Dark Mark, shortly after the final of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup, he re-emerged briefly to give a statement to the Daily Prophet about how the latest goings-on proved him right about how wands should be confiscated during international Quidditch matches.

Appearances

 * Pottermore