Ballbasher
Balls have been a source of pleasure and entertainment for many generations of humankind. Small, large, soft, hard, round and oblong, all are there—in activities by the hundred. This article looks at two of them, probably the smallest and certainly the largest. We start with the latter.
Big
Imagine yourself on a wet playing field, member of a team of muddied noisy youths facing another team of muddied noisy youths, ready to play – push ball. Ever tried? The idea was to score goals by pushing the ball over the opponents back line or through some sort of goal; easier said than done, of course. Team numbers appeared arbitrary, as long as each team had about the same. The key to the game was the ball; rubberized, softly inflated, “bounced slightly,” weighing over 100 pounds, its most remarkable feature was its size; eight feet diameter, give or take a foot (Wikipedia claims six).
On the starter’s whistle, the two teams would set off from their back lines with the ball on the center spot and two or three of their fastest runners streaking to start the ball rolling in the direction of their opponents back line. The trick was to lift the ball three feet or so off the ground at which point your teams tallest would drive up at it from behind pushing it over the heads of the opponents.
And so the game progressed, defense, attack, no physical assaults allowed, but a lot of tripping. Amazingly exhausting work. The game I played in was part of a viability assessment. Since then we heard nothing of it. Presumably it went the way of the dinosaur. Imagine having to find a safe place to keep it between games, repair a leak, transport it to matches—.
And Small
The other ball considered in this trivial assessment guide is the table tennis ball; one of the smallest and certainly the lightest, and unquestionably the most devilish, nasty, deceiving, complex, difficult to handle ball known to man. No other ball can be made to behave in ways that confuse, disorient, frustrate and irritate opponents as the table tennis ball; and basically without a player touching it. Top spin, chops, slices, curves, side, loop, tomahawks; the ball would go off in directions unknown to man. Oh lordy, lordy, what a joy when one could get on top of it all. Try table tennis on YouTube for an amazing selection of movie material.
So to the point; all those intrigued by table tennis should know there is a bunch locally that does this for fun. I guess you have to meet them, deceivers to a man. www.SBTTC.wordpress.com should tell you more. I have seen no evidence of Pushball anyway in the USA. Probably not for SaddleBrooke.