Beer Pong - New UK tournament.

Strange Games has been contacted by Ben Newham, a leading pisshead light in the UK Beer Pong scene.  He is staging a major UK Beer Pong event next Saturday the 5th of February in Cheltenham. Up to 32 teams are playing for prizes totalling £500.  Just think of how much cheap cider you could buy with that. So I thought it was about time I featured this marvelous sport. 

Beer Pong is possibly the King of Drinking Games.  It is a pastime that started out as a basic fraternity house drinking game in the 80's that has now become a game played world wide with a set rules and a world championship with prize money of $50,000: the aptly named The World Series Of Beer Pong.

Early versions of the game were basically normal table tennis games with a pint pot  of beer at each end of the table.  If your glass was struck by the ball then you had to take a sip of beer, if the ball landed inside it then you had to drink the whole pint. The modern game differs in that the table tennis bats have been dispensed with and the solitary glass has been replaced by multiple one.  There are numerous versions of the game but the standardised rules state that teams are made up of two players each and they both stand at the ends of a 8ft by 2ft Beer Pong table.  In front of each team is a set of 10 beer filled paper cups (use water if you are on the Beer Pong wagon) set up in a triangular formation.  Each team now alternates with two shots each the aim being to throw a ping pong ball into one of the opposing cups.  If successful then one of the opposing team must drink the contents and remove the cup from the table.  Throws can be either under-arm or over-arm through the air or they can involve a single bounce.  The first team to cause their opponents to drink all their beer are the victors.

Beer Pong has been almost universally criticised and declaimed by politicians, health professionals and newspaper columnists and everyone else that hates to see anyone enjoy themselves, ever.

visit the website uk beer pong league for more details and a full set of rules

Mini Golf 2011 events & Midget Golf

The British Mini Golf Association 2011 event list is finalised with diminutive golfing events around the country in such hotspots of glamour as Margate, Hastings and Weymouth,  with the World Championships held in August in Stockholm.  Read the full schedule here  at minigolf.org and don't forget to visit the best mini golf blog the Ham and Egger Files for up to mini golf news and the Crazy World Tour.

Although we love Mini Golf here at Strange Games towers we think that a preferable game may be Midget Golf.  Simply kneel down, putting some shoes under your knees for added effect, then try and hit a golf ball with a standard length club. If played on a normal length course games could take some considerable time.  Also as the video below shows it isn't that easy to even strike the ball.

Groin Ball

Groin Ball is a much more sophisticated testicular game than Roshambo (the brutal ball kicking game where players face each other and take turns to make unguarded kicks into the other's groin until one player gives up.  Games are usually extremely short lived.)
This classic Japanese version of Groin Ball is played between two teams of two players. Each team consists of a ball thrower and a target player.  The two opposing target players face each other and with their hands they hold one another's shoulders.  They also need to keep their feet about shoulder width apart and they need to maintain this stance throughout the game.
The throwing players  have a ready supply of tennis balls.  They then have to fire these through the open legs of their partner, bouncing onto the ground with the hope of bouncing up and  smashing into the groin of the opposing target player. Target players can move around and push each other in order to move them into a vulnerable position but they must maintain the hand shoulder contact.  Similarly the ball throwers can move anywhere so as to get a clean aim and as soon as their ball supply has gone they can pick up ones on the floor and keep up their frenetic throwing pace. 
What makes the game especially thrilling is that the target players have to keep their feet well apart so that their partner can fire ball through the gap while they may desperately want to close them after receiving the odd strike or two.
The team with the first target player to cry loses.

If you are interested in more ball and groin based fun try Duncan Flann's Groin Ball or Crotch Ball

Tights Racing

Strange Games has been inundated by an e-mail from Elmo McDonald :'Montegue, can you tell me the best Christmas party game to play that is fun for the whole family, is energetic and which uses some of the crap that is left around the place at this time of the year?'  I had a good think about this request and remembered a game from my own childhood: Tights Racing.

Tights Racing is a superb childrens' party game and it is yet another one of those kids' games that is even more fun when played by adults. To play pair up the players into teams of two. One player in each team is given a pair of nylon tights and both are surrounded by a large pile of light, bulky items such as: toilet rolls, fruit, empty plastic bottles, cuddly toys...etc. Basically, as much stuff as you can find around the place. On a starting command one player must jump into their tights and then with the help of their partner shove all the items down the legs as quickly as possible and then once everything has been safely stored there they must race each other to the other end of the room.
 

Even better, delight your neighbours by playing the game outside.

The sight of players running along with elephant-man-like nylon cladded legs is what gives this game its unigue charm.

Happy Christmas to all Strange Games readers...and don't forget if you play something truly obscure and odd and would like to share it with the world then send it to Strange Games: montegue_blister@hotmail.co.uk 

Rip Off Your Kecks

Strange Games reader W. Poole (pictured) sent in the following party game, which he insists is 'the' game to play at all the best parties:Rip off Your Kecks or Trouser Swapping as it is sometimes know in more polite circles is the ultimate party game that involves clothes.  There are quite a few of these such as the one where you have to put on an oversize set of clothes and race to the end of the room, or the Blindfold Shoe Game (everyone takes off their shoes, puts them in a pile, is blindfolded then tries to locate and put on their own!)  Trouser Swapping though is in a different league – and if played will have you in creases.

For teams of two players.  One puts on an additional pair of trousers then sits down on the floor with their legs outstretched in front of themselves. Their partners sit down in front of them again with outstretched legs and with the soles of their feet touching.  This is a key part of the game because during no stage can players lose contact with their feet. The aim of the game is for player one to take off their trousers, but rolling them down their legs and for player two to wear them (by rolling them up their legs) inside out – BUT with their feet touching at all times. This ensures a bizarre buttock shuffling game of apparel based fun.

The ideal trousers for the game are probably a pair of roomy Oxford Bags....for more advanced players the use of the skinny jean is considered particularly challenging.

UK RPS Championships - Report

Excellent UK RPS tournament report with lots of photos and videos by Richard 'the Rock' Gottfried over at the Ham and Egger blog (your first stop for UK mini golf news)

Lawnmower Throwing

With the Olympic Games in London in 2012 perhaps the organisers will feature some home grown games.  Maybe they could spice up the dullness of Hammer Throwing by combining it with Britain's love of gardening...surely it's not too much to ask for a Lawnmower Throwing event.

UK Rock Paper Scissors Championships 2010

Strange Games reader and mini-golf guru Richard Gottfried  highlights the running of the UK RPS Championships.  It is to be held at the Durrell Arms in Fulham this Saturday 13th.  It's only £5 to enter which would be money well spent if you end up being the UK champion in what is essentially a random sport....or is it? 
If you want to brush up on your RPS skills you could do worse than visit the World RPS Society here they detail essential strategies for victory including the 'possible':"Rock is for Rookies because males have a tendency to lead with Rock on their opening throw. It has a lot to do with idea that Rock is perceived as strong and forceful" 
The 'surely that's cheating':"Tell your opponent what you are going to throw and then actually throw what you said"  and the desperate:"When All Else Fails Go With Paper"

Here at Strange Games we are slightly disappointed that they are not having categories for two of our favourite variations:
Extreme Rock Paper Scissors - If you win with paper you slap your opponent, if you win with scissors you poke them and if you win with a rock you punch them. 
RPS 101 - the ultimate in hand game complexity.  A total of 101 different hand combinations need to be learned to play. An example hand position is 'baby'. This move will spill 'beer',  ruin 'guitar'  but unfortunately be unaware of 'satan'.  Visit the official 101 RPS site to play the most terrifyingly complex game ever.