In the past year alone, I've read, as a parent, at least two school stories with extended sports matches (pages upon pages of blow-by-blow play), *A Prefect's Uncle* by Wodehouse, and *Tom Brown's Schooldays*, by Hughes. When I was a kid, I definitely read other children's books with that type of writing.

I was okay with the Quidditch chapters, when I read it as a child. I didn't love them enough to really understand how it became an IRL sport, though.