Other weird regional game 'sports'.....

[Bendix]

well, the curling thread made me think about other far from mainstream sports. there was a pretty heavy belgian influence where i grew up. i wasn't really aware of english darts until i was grown- we 'shot piks' - light wooden darts with a small bullseye target . 'vogelpik' is what i think it's supposed to be called. almost everybody shot piks. it was in all the bars, guys played for dimes and nickels at lunch. some of our belgian neighbors also had a game i kinda remember played with these beveled hard rubber (i think) discs about the size of a wheelbarrow tire that you rolled in an arc towards a stake. i have no idea how it was spelled but they pronounced it 'roly boly'. that was a fun game until my dad and i (not of belgian descent) got the hang of it and whipped 'em. then they never seemed to play any more.....

so, any bizarre local sports from your neck of the woods? only 4 years 'til the next olympics.......

 

[Chainsaw]

Great Topic!
Here's one from my childhood...
Canal Ball. it's essentially baseball but we played on Harsen's Island near Detroit. My grandparents back yard was fairly small and butted up to a canal. Infielders played with gloves. But the Outfielders used fishing nets with long poles. The outfielders were also in rowboats that were anchored in the canal. The boats pretty much stayed in the same location but the players could dive for the ball if they chose. Any ball that was hit in the air and landed in the water was an automatic home run. If the ball bounced or rolled into the water it was a ground rule double. If we were lucky the nieghbor's lab would be out and we'd send him in to retrieve the balls that we couldn't get. We used a tennis ball instead of a baseball and one of the skinny yellow whiffleball bats.

I've got a couple of other sports to put on here but I wanna find my pictures to post with them. I won't be able to do it until next week though.

 

[udallcustombikes]

Maybe it's a sport and maybe not. I grew up in Austin, TX and everyone played 42. It's kinda like spades with dominos. Growing up I figured it was played all the time everywhere like at home. I moved to Wichita and NOBODY has even heard of it (even though the instructions are included in every box of double six dominos). They ask "Is that like Chicken Foot?". What the frick is Chicken Foot?

 

[B607]

Our game was "Bat'em tire". Two teams, 3 on a team. Offensive players each had a tire with no rim. Two car tires and one semi truck tire. Defensive players had wooden baseball bats. We played on a driveway that had a slight slope to the street. The offense would start at the top of the driveway, rolling the 3 tires faster and faster by hand. The defense was standing in the street and had to bat down the tires before they reached the curb on the oher side of the street. We spent a lot of hours playing this game. Gary

 

[Walker]

Adventure Croquet!

Take Croquet (somewhat boring but respectable), add a little miniture golf (more interresting albeit childish which ballances the croquet), take away all boundaries. We would build obstacles, teeter totters, ramps, tunnels put wickets up in the woods, super long drives, use whatever was in the yard etc. etc.

 

[Chainsaw]

Walker, I like that game! I might have to get one going at Freakapalooza this summer! It sounds stupidly challenging! 8)

 

[Walker]

I picked up some old golf course flags at the dumps which helps when locating those those long drive wickets in the woods. Its one of those games that is as much fun to set up as it is to play. Cheating without getting cought is encouraged of course :wink: