BTW, I forgot to mention that the Brier is the Canadian national mens' championship. It may be changing now, but most of the top men consider it harder to win the national, or even regional, title than go on to win the world championship. (Please excuse the mild bragging; some of the winter sports are pretty much the only ones at which we're consistently good.)
>From Julian:
"Hmmmmm .... you mean the variety played by school-uniformed, goosebumped, young girls, desperately attempting to seem earnest in the wet chill of a typical English sports day ?!
And this is Canada's National Sport ??!!! Wow. Tell me more !! ;-)
Julian Lord
PS Nope, hockey and *ice* hockey are definitely NOT the same thing ..."
Wellll, now you've got my pedantic instincts well and truly going, Julian! ;-) No, the knobby-kneed field variety of hockey does not deserve the unadulterated title. Turns out that hockey (and curling) on ice can be seen in Pieter Brueghel the Elder's "Hunters in the Winter", dated 1563. There are other depictions, too. Field hockey (and the memories of high school sports are definitely not my faves), also called shinty or bandy, doesn't seem to have as good a documented history. One isolated (and doubtful) quote in the OED from 1527, and then nothing until 17-something.
Strangely, though, hockey isn't Canada's official national sport. That honour belongs to lacrosse, which might be a good baboon sport, too. It gets round some of the limitations of baboon shoulder anatomy with regards to throwing. There is, BTW, no definite field size. In the traditional game it can be miles long between goals.
Lacrosse was considered a decent substitution for outright warfare among the Iroquois warriors, though at least one notable massacre occurred when the one team doublecrossed the other. Something about the women hiding their men's weapons in their skirts is my fuzzy memory from many years ago.
Baboons, with their dominance structure, might squabble almost as much among themselves for the honour of carrying the ball as with their opponents. It might be one way for a lesser male to challenge a rival, too. More success in the game = more admiring females around you afterwards. The real stakes in all of this, of course.
So picture your mobs, I mean teams, of baboons, each armed with a stick, no, make that a one-handed, curved club, with a small net in the crook for catching and hurling the ball. Rather like field hockey with lots of highsticking. Picture them bashing each other over the heads with it. Hear the howls echoing over the plains...
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