Re: Baboons and Canada's national sport

From: jorganos <joe_at_...>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 10:34:10 -0000


> 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.

I've seen allusions to mediaeval "stickball" on the continent.

> 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.

Basically, field hockey is the pedestrian variation of polo, a game we know the Persians and Baktrians played even before Alexander the Great. And, what a surprise, Pakistan still is a major power in field hockey.

Skating may be fairly old, but I really find it hard to come up with evidence that the skating variation is older games played in the fertile crescent.

Now, Lacrosse is a form of field hockey, isn't it? (Same as American Football is a form of Soccer, derived from Rugby). Or of Shinti, or Yorrgh, as Alex put it on an old digest. Check Lokarnos.com...

OBGlorantha:

Char-Un polo, played with fresh human heads as a ball, featured in Tarsh Wars. There even was a debate whether polo was Pentan or Carmanian some years back on the digest.

Who in Glorantha plays the timbermen triathlon (or however many disciplines there are, including tree felling, two men on a floating trunk, and possibly climbing and de-branching or similar)?

Sport challenges often are a limited violence means of resolving a conflict, e.g. dart competitions. (Yes, including the Lunar variation - I suppose there is a strong gambling industry wagering on ongoing dart competitions, maybe even a connoisseur's "magazine" (poetry cycle or a illustrated chronicle like the ones from the german 30- years War) about it?)

Dara Happan charioteering was provided by Greg with all the excessive hardness you want.

Oliver mentioned horse and foot racing. How about Orlanthi (or wind child) flying regattas with rather small loops hung in strange angles?

Foot racing across difficult ground. In Vechta in Germany there is a custom that the maidens run barefoot across the freshly mown grain fields, with a great fair around the event (Stoppelmarkt). Orientation runs through hostile territory would be fun for Vustrian Orlanthi braves, I suppose. The same on horseback for Pentans.

Surfing? The Troll Strait ought to provide a perfect outgoing wave whenever the Blue Streak plummets down Magasta's Pool. Be sure not to get caught in the Closing, though...

Speaking of plummeting: cliff diving among the Sofali or coastal Caladralanders?

Sailing: Mirrorsea Bay is the best sailing area with hardly any wave activity and an almost reliable good wind (Bingista).

Skiing: Basically another mode of normal transportation turned into a competition or re-enactment. Heroes go downhill skiing in the Valley of Avalanches near Gonn Orta's Castle in the Elder Wilds. What cultures use skis? Orlanthi, Uncoling, Ygg's Islanders, Valindings, and Kalikos cultists?

Would there be Enverinus games in northwestern Dara Happa involving lots if fire in the contests? Lava-gliding in Caladraland?

Other competitive team sports might include barn-raising (for fairs) or erection of field fortifications (and subsequent destruction of the opposing team's fortifications with siege engines?), Grain Grinding contests with big mortars and huge stone pestles (in Esrolia, why not let the men's foolishness provide something useful?)

Joerg (whose favourite team sports at school were handball and field hockey).

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