Gorodki / Russian Street Skittles

Strange Games is extremely grateful to reader Larches Yeltsin for highlighting the brilliant street game of Gorodki.
Gorodki (Russian for 'little towns') is a truly unique Russian street skittles game that has been played for centuries but only got a standardised set of rules in the 1920s.
The target skittles are five cylindrical wooden blocks (about 6" in length) which are set up in a series of 15 distinctive formations. These formations (the towns) are placed inside a chalked square area (the city) 13 meters away from the throwers. The said throwers wield impressive 1m long heavy wooden batons which they hurl aggressively at the skittles in a sideways throw - the aim being to knock all sticks in the town outside of their containing square. Once all skittles have been removed then the next formation is set up. The team that takes the fewest throws to destroy all 15 'towns' wins.

Gorodki is famed for being a popular game of Lenin, Tolstoy and Gorky and it also makes an appearance in Vladamir Nabakov's 1957 novel Pnin:
"The favourite recreation was Gorodki...One drew a big square on the ground, one placed there, like columns, cylindrical pieces of wood...and then from some distance one threw at them a thick stick, very hard, like a boomerang, with a wide development of the arm. I still hear the trakh! when one hit the wooden pieces and they flew into the air."

strange games no:169

Blindfold Water Pistol Fighting

My recent post on Street Wars reminded me of a blindfolded party game that is immense fun yet rarely played these days.

Blindfold Water Pistol Fighting is a great game for 2 or even 3 players at a time. Simply place two loaded water pistols in the centre of the room and then stand two players at the side of the room, blindfold them and set them off. Their first task will be to find their weapon, then they have to fire it in the direction of their opponent. First player to shoot the other wins. Non playing party goers add to the fun and confusion by shouting out directions to the players.

best ever water pistol game: high noon vitamin C
strange games no:168

Hopping Bulldog

Hopping Bulldog is a great lost street game with similarities to Dance, Fight or Windmill and of course British Bulldog and is surely due a revival amongst street games enthusiasts.

One player stands in the middle of the street, balanced on one leg with his arms crossed. All other players stand facing him on the kerb. The centre player now chooses one, and only one, to cross first. This player must now try to get to the other side of the street but must travel in a likewise fashion by hopping with his arms crossed. It is the job of the center player to crash into him with the aim of knocking him over/getting him to put a foot down before he gets to the other side of the street. If he is successful in this spoiling activity then the travelling player is captured and joins with the centre. Another victim is then picked. If, however the travelling player successfully gets to the far side undisturbed (or if the centre player falls/puts foot down) then all the other players must hop across at once. The centre player attempts to disrupt and capture as many as possible.
The game continues with more and more 'hoppers' becoming centre players and eventually a solitary winning crosser is left.

web: hopping increases bone density research
strange games no:167

World Conker Championships: Conker Facts & Terminology

With the 2007 World Conker Championships being held on the Green at Ashton, Northamptonshire on 14th October it seems appropriate that Strange Games makes a post. Everyone is familiar with the game itself so this post concentrates on some of the more unusual rules, terminology and facts that are associated with the king of seed sports.

~Conkers is also known as ‘Cheggies’, ‘Hongkongs’, ‘Cobs’ and best of all ‘Obbley-onkers’
~Flat conkers are known as ‘cheesers’ or ‘cheese cutters’
~Old conkers are known as ‘seasoners’, ‘yearsies’ or ‘second yearsers’

~First to call out ‘strings’, ‘clinks’, ‘tangles’ or ‘snags’ when you get tangled strings gets another go.

~Hardening methods: bake for an hour, leave in dark drawer for a year, soak in soda solution or vinegar but best of all : pass the conker through the digestive system of a pig!

Having first strike is an advantage and can be gained with the use of the following rhymes,
‘Bagsie first cracks’,
‘Idly idly ack – my first smack’,
‘Hobily hobily honker my first conker’,
'Obbly oh, my first go’.

If a conker is knocked out of opponents hands, shout ‘stamps’ and jump on it! But if they shout ‘no stamps’ first you can’t.

In the 1970's a re-usable toy conker was produced made from plastic. It never caught on, presumably because of the above 'stampsies' rule plus it is a stupid idea to begin with.

In 1952 Huw Wheldon, for some reason, suggested a televised conker competition, The Conker King. Tens of thousands of children applied to enter. The finale pitted a 460-er a 1136-er, a 2385-er and a 3367-er together. The winner became a 7351-er!

official world conker championship site
banbury posties play conkers - support the postal workers

strange games no:166

Spit Racing / Spitfires ~a very strange racing game

It is not our job at Strange Games to comment upon and judge games, rather we are a conduit for unusual activities. And if you are looking for an extremely unusual game that combines athleticism, stupidity with possible hygiene issues then you need look no further than Spit Racing.

Suggested by reader Duncan Flann, who remembers playing it as a youth in the 1970s, Spit Racing (or Spitfires) appears to have died a death with that decade.

The simple, and disgusting, idea is that players race against each other by spitting saliva as far forward as possible then rush to the point it hits the ground. Then they must spit again. And so on until they reach the finishing line first and are declared the winner. Obviously a combination of solid running and spitting ability is required to be good at the game. Duncan writes: "I remember that the fastest time achieved for the 100m was about 90 seconds. Although there was quite a strong following wind that day."

strange games no:165

Street Wars~ the king of urban games

If you have ever held a water pistol and fantasised about being a Jackal-like assassin, slipping through crowds un-noticed before clinically dispatching your victim, then Street Wars is the game for you.
Street Wars is the brand name for an urban hunting game that is staged in various large cities around the world at different times. The game is designed to last 3 weeks and is for 100-150 players. Once players have signed up they are given an envelope containing their victims details (name, work and home address, photo) and they have to wipe him out as quickly as possible. Obviously, every player as well as being a hitman is a target himself.
Players can hunt down and eliminate their victim anyway they like as long as it involves the use of a water based weapon: water pistols, water bombs, even a glass of water. If you wet him, you kill him. And on his death the victim must give the killer his own envelope, the person inside being the new target for the victorious player. If, however, the envelope contains your own details then you are a winner of the game.
The excitement of minutely planning a hit is amplified by the fact that as you work out how to get into someone's place of work whilst carrying a super-soaker someone else at that very moment may have you in their sights. And for up to three weeks every time you are in a lift and the doors open you will feel the fear.
Street Wars events have been staged in New York, Vancouver, London and many other major cities.

streetwars.net
streetwars video (poland)
strange games no:164
hitman online: amazing banned book, technical manual for independant contractors

Urban Pacman

Urban Pacman is another great recommendation for the bored city dweller from Strange Games reader Tommy Teal. Mr Teal writes:

Many computer games are representations of the real world. NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications graduate program however decided to see what happens when you convert a computer world into a real life one and so Pac Manhattan was born.

Utilising a six by four block of Manhattan for the course, one player is dressed as the pacman and four others are dressed as the ghosts Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde from the classic 80's arcade game. Five other controlling players are needed. These ‘generals’ sit together in room and control one player each using a mobile phone. They can't actually see the players that they are controlling but whenever a pacman or a ghost gets to a street intersection they must then report their position and the ghosts are told the pacman’s state but NOT his position.
As in the computer game the pacman's state can change by eating one of the corner power-ups. These are imaginary, but fixed in position before the game starts by the generals, and provide the pacman with invincibility for two minutes and he can then be directed to chase ghosts. If he catches one then that player has to return to the game's starting position before being able to chase again. Point are gained for the total distance the pacman achieves before being caught.

pacmanhatten website
strange games no:163

Snowball Fighting / Yukigassen

Unsurprisingly the simple pleasure of throwing a snowball at someone has been turned into a game with standardized rules and field definitions. Snowball Fighting, or Yukigassen as it is called, originated in Japan in 1988. Since then it has snowballed, so to speak, and has been taken up by the Nordic countries, especially Finland where an annual two day Yukigassen festival is held in Kemijarvi.
Snowball fighting is played by two teams of seven players on a ten by forty meter pitch which has a series of snow walls for hiding behind. Play consists of three sets of 3 minutes each and during each set the team has a supply of 90 snowballs only. The snowballs are created before each game using a snowball making machine ensuring uniformity of size and density and stopping the childhood technique of adding a little ice to the finished ball.
Each team's home area contains a flag and they must defend this whilst trying to capture their opponent’s and avoid being hit by a ball. If a player is hit he is out for the whole of the set. A set is won by either capturing the flag or by having more players left on the pitch at the end of 3 minutes. If there is a tie then the team that used the fewest snowballs wins that set. Surely there should be a push to get Yukigassen into the next Winter Olympics, at the very least as a demonstration sport.

finnish yukigassen

yukigassen on yuki-tube
strange games no:162