Warner Brothers have upset Harry Potter fans with news that scenes featuring the fictitious sport of quidditch have been dropped from the forthcoming film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The novel on which the film is based, the fifth episode in JK Rowlingâ??s enormously popular wizards school saga, is over 800 pages long, and to dramatise it in its entirety would result in a film lasting seven hours. While this idea may have appealed to the legions of Potter devotees worldwide, producers have decided to cut the quidditch in favour of maintaining commercial common sense.

This move has particularly upset fans of the actor Rupert Grint, who plays Harryâ??s hapless best friend. His character Ron Weasley’s sporting debut provides the comic relief in the novel, as he predictably overcomes initial adversity to snatch victory in the inter-house cup at the last minute.

It is not clear at this stage how much else has been omitted from the story to make the film, due for release next summer. One subplot guaranteed to escape the cutting room floor, however,  is that of Harryâ??s relationship with  sixth former Cho Chang. The scene in which seventeen year old Harry actor Daniel Radcliffe kisses attractive older woman Katie Leung for the first time took a reported thirty days to “get right”.

No wonder Harry hasnâ??t got time for sport any more.

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Keywords: Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter, JK Rowling, Katie Leung, Quidditch, Rupert Grint, Warner Brothers