Pegs

Strange Games reader Lemoncat sent in this childhood game, a variation on hide and seek and various defending the base type games.
"Three wooden clothes pegs leaning against the bottom of a wall two either side and one resting on top. Two teams are formed, however many kids are up for it. The first team take it in turns to lob a tennis ball and smash the sticks far and wide, once this is achieved everybody legs it and hides. The other team have to search them out whilst at the same time try to guard against the sticks being replaced neatly against the wall again. If they are this means a win and the other team don't get a turn at hiding and attacking... and so on.
OK, maybe not as glamorous as a face jumping contest at the Fool & Bladder but we used to have great fun as kids playing it."

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Lemoncat writes a sharity music blog called Grooves of Delight, specialising in dusting down and making available again great, mainly instrumental, LPs from the past. If you are looking for 60's kids TV themes played by the Norrie Paramour Orchestra with the cover art of a nubile semi clad woman on a motorbike, then this just might be the place for you

The Krispy Kreme Challenge

As we are on a strange-food-related games then...
If you are trying to lose some weight then moderate exercise is a great way to shed a few excess pounds but you should try and avoid the Krispy Kreme Challenge . The perfect sporting event for all budding Homer Simpsons is held annually in Raleigh, North Carolina and was started in 2004 by the state's university students.
Around 3000 competitors run two miles downhill to the nearest Krispy Kreme bakery where they have to eat a dozen doughnuts each then run the two miles back to the starting line, all within the space of an hour and while keeping the doughnuts down. The record time is around the 37 minute mark. A set of vomit bins greet struggling competitors making it to the finishing line.
The average person burns 600 calories on a four mile jog. Unfortunately a dozen doughnuts contain 2,400 calories and over twice the daily recommended allowance of sugar.
web: The Krispy Kreme Challenge
Strange Games is indebted to Lexiepants for bringing this game to our attention

Wagon Wheel Rolling Championship...even more biscuit fun

Continuing the theme of unusual games involving biscuits there is news of an exciting event in May. The world's first Wagon Wheel Rolling Championships to be held in the Black Horse pub near Slough.
Slough is the birthplace of the famously large, chocolate covered marshmallow biscuit and this event will celebrate its 60th birthday. The competition itself is a bit like a biscuit bagatelle...each competitor has five rolls of their biscuit on a specially constructed course which has five separate scoring areas marked out (two 20's, two 40s and one 60 point area). If the biscuit finishes in a scoring zone then that score is added to the contestants total. The day is afforded even more prestige by having as its compere Keith Chegwin.

you tube video of Keith Chegwin demonstrating his biscuit rolling technique

Biscuit Throwing~more biscuit fun

Staying with the theme of fun with biscuits we have Biscuit Throwing
The one biscuit you should never pick if you enter a dunking competition, the humble Rich Tea, is the very one chosen for its aerodynamic properties in Biscuit Throwing. The World Biscuit Throwing Championships, an irregularly held charity event, were first held at the 2002 Glendale Show, Northumberland. Contestants have three attempts to propel a rich tea the furthest distance (the winning distance was 80m) in the hope of securing the trophy... a varnished Rich Tea.
You can't help but feel the organisers have missed a trick here. If they included the Chocolate Eclair Javelin and Chelsea Bun Shot Put they would have the full complement of field throwing events.

Strange Games with Biscuits: Malteser Blow Football & Competitive Biscuit Dunking

Inspired by the advertisement for the delicious ball shaped chocolates Malteser Blow Football is a great game for football fixated chocoholics everywhere. Make two teams containing two players. One player from each team forms a goal by kneeling down on opposite sides of a small table so that their bottom lips are at table level, they now open their mouths as wide as possible. Their team mates stand on the other side and compete, using straws, to blow a Malteser into the goal. Once a goal is scored a new ball will be required. Continue until full
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Amongst biscuit connoisseurs there is often much debate about whether a biscuit should be dunked in a cup of tea and if it should which varieties are able to withstand the process best without disintegrating. There is no authoritative biscuit dunking body but to hold your own competition, each player picks their biscuit of choice and stands by a steaming hot cup of tea. All players now simultaneously repeatedly dunk making sure at least half of the biscuit is submerged each time. Last biscuit to show any damage wins.
The radio station XFM held a World Championship Biscuit Dunking Competition in September 2007 over a 3 week period. The biscuits making the final were the Digestive Caramel, Fig Roll, Caramel Wafer and the eventual winner, the hard case amongst biscuits, The Pink Wafer.

Slapheads

There are some bizarre playground games for two that involve pain. Well known ones such as Feet Stamping, Slapsies and Knuckles and lesser known such as Extreme Rock Paper Scissors. But, there is one that understandably and thankfully never played today: Slapheads.
Slapheads is like the human equivalent of the summer fayre game of Hit the Rat ( a 'rat' is dropped through a drainpipe and the player has to hit it with a baseball bat when it emerges) Here, one person must hold his hands, palms facing inwards, a set distance apart (2 feet or so). The other must now bob his head down between the hands and avoid being slapped in the head. To trial this game I have just played a session with Mrs Blister and it is brilliant fun. Whether it's through fear of reprisals or slowness of reactions the bobber often wins and the slapee is left slapping thin air.
I suppose if this marvellous game were to take off today then the wearing of a safety helmet would be the only update required. Encouraging children to play old fashioned games to help in the fight against obesity is all well and good but not at the expense of a perforated ear drum.

Badfight / Badmington Fighting

Recently Strange Games received an E-mail from Michael Semenenko, senior lecturer of faculty of sports St.Petersburg State University. In it he describes a most brilliant new combination game that he has created.
Most strange games enthusiasts are aware of combining two games to make an unusual new one, Chess Boxing being the one that comes immediately to mind. But badmington fighting or Badfight as Michael has named it combines Badmington and a martial art and is very special indeed.

Badfight is played on a 6x12m area with a badmington net set at 2m high in the centre. Players attach flat sponge pads, measuring approximately 15cm square, onto the backs of their hands and also onto their feet (see pictures). The serving player must kick the shuttlecock over the net. The returning player has two moves to return it, first with the foot and then with the hand. To catch and flick up a shuttle using just your foot pad must take quite a lot of agility...and then to smash it back over the net with the hand pad! It sounds like it would be absolutely exhausting to play.
If the shuttle touches the floor or goes out of bounds then the point is lost. First to 15 points wins.

A superb game that deserves much wider publicity and inclusion in the Olympics as soon as possible.

Drawing Room Baseball

An extremely silly indoor game but immense fun nonetheless, Drawing Room Baseball brings the great American sport into the living room provides hours of endless fun and broken ornaments.

Best for small teams of three or four players (but I guess it depends on how big your house is), simply re-arrange some room furnishings to provide the bases. Then replace the baseball bat with a kitchen spatula (either wood or metal) and instead of a baseball use a ping pong ball. This gives the pitcher the opportunity to wind up his throwing arm and pitch the ball as hard as he wants without fear of injury. The damage to the room is not from bat and ball action but rather the dashes to reach bases and the scrambles for the ball of the fielding team.