Figure A
Sunday 17 June 2001 (or similar date!) was the University of York Badminton Club Summer Social, which that year involved a barbecue on Walmgate Stray, York. Having had intentions of making punch, Rosalind Ellis possessed some lemons and limes.
After the barbecue, and a game of football, the social moved to Langwith JCR; Pool and Table Football were played. Meanwhile, Sam Gardner and Simon Taylor were throwing one of Ros's limes to each other across the room. Ben Tilley soon became involved, and the throwing started becoming increasingly speedy. A remark of "Hot Lime" came from someone. Almost immediately, the lime was dropped 3 times in succession. The comment from Ben as he picked up the lime was "Hot Slippery Lime".
Soon the money ran out for the pool and table football, and a number of club members drifted off home, leaving the hard core members throwing the lime around. Over the course of the next few minutes, this developed into two teams throwing the lime across the pool table, and from these humble beginnings, the game of Hot Slippery Lime was born.
The original players were:
Team A: Simon Taylor and John Shearer.Sam dropped out later to leave a 2 on 2 competition which ended with End 3 (as described in the rules), minutes before, as it turned out, End 2 was going to happen. The game at that time was 24-22, so End 1 had been expected to happen first.
Rules are fundamentally the same as volleyball, but with any number of people allowed on either side. Rules that differ from volleyball, other than the obvious such as having to use a lime, are:
Note: not a suitable game to play with a lime likely to explode or go mushy, or across an expensive well-maintained pool table.
On March 9 2002, a group of students returned from York city centre where they had been dining, to a house in Milton Street. There they sat, drinking tea, and discussing the badminton tournament some of them were playing in the following morning. Peter Robinson, not playing due to being 'too good', asked of Simon Taylor, in a similar situation, what they could do instead that morning. The ideas ranged from hockey to frisbee to french cricket. This last suggestion reminded Simon that he had recently taken hostage of a French Cricket Ball. He brought out the ball to the interest of the group, particularly Peter and Phill Tuxford.
Peter Robinson suggested it should be possible to design a game for this ball, in this room (the sitting room of the house) for those present. They were:
Peter RobinsonPeter at that point started to formulate Loungeball. The basic concept was to use the French Cricket Ball to turn off the sitting room light switch, from the starting point, "obviously", of the seat on which he was sitting. After a good deal of suggestions from the rest of the group, most of which were welcomed and a few which were considered too petty or difficult to implement, the current set of rules were settled upon.
The first game of Loungeball ever played started with Peter, Simon and Lindsay playing, and the others in the group in their named positions. Later, some of the others took part, with their named positions being played by others in the group. Laura was the only person to remain in her rightful named position throughout.
The game lasted from approximately 23:45 on Saturday 9 March 2002 until 00:53 on Sunday 10 March 2002, during which time it became Simon's 23rd birthday. The final scores were roughly:
Simon 60The aim of the game is to score points by throwing the french cricket ball at the sitting room light switches while avoiding hazards. The obviously depends on normal flick-switch light switches which are not particularly stiff or strong.
note: A french cricket ball is a slightly flat plastic ball just small enough to be caught comfortably in one hand.
Players must take their positions as shown in figure A.
The thrower may not touch anything outside the lines of tranquility and serenity when throwing. If they do they must throw again. The player playing the position of Lindsay, The Judge of Gamesmanship and the only person other than the thrower to be located in Turmoil, will check for thrower faults. Kicking and/or point deduction should be made for gamesmanship; sportsmanship may be awarded with points as determined by the Judge of Gamesmanship but may not exceed 5 points in any turn.
The first throw for each turn is made with the light On. When a throw is made, one of the following happens, with consequences as described below:
The game ends when too few people remain awake to keep the game running.
Note: not a suitable game to play when there are fragile or breakable items in the room. Not advisable to play with John Shearer at any time without protective clothing.
In Spring 2002, Paul Abthorpe came to visit his girlfriend at the time, Vicky Broadhurst, one of Simon Taylor's housemates. After a while, bored of being a boyfriend, Paul decided he should be a mate, and he and Simon went into the back yard where they found a small hoola hoop that had been left behind by previous tenants.
Simon challanged Paul to try to hoola-hoop with the hoop, knowing he would fail due to the child-size rather small diameter. Sure enough, he did fail, so another use for the hoop was required.
Conveniently, the back of the house had a rising drainpipe that went up about 10ft and then ended. A game of hoopla soon began, with Paul and Simon taking it in turns to stand by the back door and lob the hoola-hoop over the drainpipe. They soon became adept at this, and the game developed into "How high can you throw a hoola-hoop?".
Simon could throw it a long way and make it land in next-door's yard, requiring a quick wall-scramble to retrieve it. Paul could throw it just as high, and make it land over the back wall of the yard into the road that ran behind. The wall is about 12ft high, Paul went the long way round to get it back. Simon gave him vocal support to help him find the location of his house along the featureless wall, and Paul soon found the hoop, and threw it back over the wall into Simon's back yard.
"Missed," Simon called back, "Do you want to try again". Paul, unable to take being labelled as someone unable to throw a plastic hoop over a drainpipe that was out-of-sight over a 12ft wall, had to say "Yes". So Simon threw the hoop back, and the game of Artillery Hoopla was born.
After about 30 attempts, including a few which were deliberately aimed long in at attempt to hit Vicky who had come out into the yard to see what the fuss was about, Paul succeeded in landing the hoop over the pipe. Exclaiming that he'd cracked it, he was given it back to prove it wasn't a fluke. This he proved by landing it on the pipe again on the very next throw. He quite while he was ahead, and came back to the house for a cup of tea.
One player must stand behind a 12ft high wall, holding a plastic hoop with diameter of less than one yard. The other side of the wall, about 5 yards from the wall, must be a 10ft high drainpipe of standard construction.
The second player must stand the drainpipe-side of the wall on the ground, so that neither player can see the other, and the player with the hoop cannot see the drainpipe.
The first player must attempt to land the hoop over the drainpipe. After each attempt, the second player should throw the hool back, and give an indication of how good the previous attempt was; generally this will be in terms of both distance and direction. The similarity of this process with that of training artillery guns on a target using a spotter plane gave rise to the name of artillery hoopla.
The game can be played in teams of two, with each team attempting to get the most successful attempts out of a give preset number.
11 June 2004 saw a large crowd of badminton players and mathematicians collect in Helen Robinson's house for a barbecue. At half past five, the barbecues were started. By 1900, most people had eaten their fill. By 2000, Andrew Wilkinson, Simon Taylor and Vicky "Firelighter" Broadhurst had managed to get the barbecue to work, the grill was switched off, and sausages were cooked.
Next to Andrew, Vicky and Simon's barbecue, was a smaller, flaming, barbecue, managed by an obscure friend of Helen's. Not taking heed of warnings to keep the meat away from the flames, he soon had created a packet of uncooked, charcoal-coated sausages.
A while later, these had cooled, and Simon was wondering whether he could throw them through the bathroom window. He was told he may not. Andrew suggested next-door's bird box, and was also dissuaded. The option of the bath overflow pipe was also turned down. Simon went for the option of over-the-roof, and had executed this before he could be stopped.
A number of others joined in, and soon Heslington Road was raining sausages and the odd burger. It was then the aim of the game to find these items the other side of the house.
Paul Abthorpe saw no reason why the game could not be played in reverse, and soon there were a number of sausages in the back yard, and rather more that had drifted over next-door's fence.
Any number of people may play. It helps if they are drunk, but this is not mandatory.
Players use any method they like to hurl burnt barbecued food over the roof of the house into the front garden or road. This may be done in any quantity and in any order.
Players then head to the front of the house, and, before the word GO!, rush out to find the fallen meat. Quorn may also be used for a vegetarian game. Points are scored for any retrieved food.
This is similar to the 1980s game of Hit The Crab Apple Down The Neighbours' Gardens Using A Tennis Racquet, except that it is usually difficult to find the crab apples again, so the treasure hunt aspect is usually lost.
At 1000 on 12 June 2004, it had been arranged for various University of York graduates, nearly-graduates, and nearly-graduate's-brothers, to meet in Heslington Road for a day trip to Brimham Rocks. At half past ten, Helen Robinson emerged from the shower, and they left.
The troupe of Helen's friends, attracted the previous evening by barbecue (eventually), set off. Paul Abthorpe in the lead, taking Vicky Broadhurst, Nick Burton, Peterobinson and Lindsay Collins in his dying ford; Jason Holland and his brother Andrew taking Kate Haydock in a unable-to-accelerate old Clio, and Simon Taylor completing the convoy in his little green Seat with Helen Robinson and Dave Short.
After expert directions from ex-local Vicky, everyone arrived at Brimham Rocks, and, within minutes, Paul and Andrew were at the top of a pile of rocks; the girls were looking around for safety nets for when they fell, and Simon and Nick were having a youthful and entertaining discussion on the merits of joining the National Trust.
After much rock-clambering, Peterobinson, who had been shown up by a couple of five-year-olds when attempting to climb a rather steep rock, produced one of two tennis balls he had brought, and soon there were a crowd of Brimham Ball virgins trying out this new sport.
The first game of Brimham Ball almost ended with End A after a freak incident. A certain un-named ex-university-cricketer missed the rock from a yard out, and the ball sailed out of sight over the top. Quarter of an hour was spent looking for it, using a variety of techniques - mainly guess-work. It could not be found.
Peter and Simon wished to use the spare ball to help locate the missing original. Nick attempted to produce an identically useless throw, while Peter and Simon watched from behind the rock to follw its path in the hope they'd be led to the original ball. The spare ball hit a tree, slid down a crack in the rocks, and disappeared from sight into a hole under a huge boulder. The Team had lost both balls.
Or had they? The long arm of the law student reached into the depths of the myserious hole, hoping not to encounter too angry an inhabitant. Fortunately, his hand found only the fur of the spare tennis ball, so the Team still had a ball. Then, the long arm produced a second ball, confirmed to be the original, from the same hole. Nick was pronounced an incredibly consistent incompetant, the Team had balls, the game restarted for 5 minutes, and then culminated in End B.
To play Brimham Ball, you require a team of people, known as a Team. They stand in front of a suitably obsucrely shaped rock on terrain designed to hurt you and twist your ankle if you fall.
The player with the ball throws the ball so that it bounces on the rock and rebounds towards the Team. Any player in the Team may catch the ball, and if a player, or a collection of players, catch the ball before it hits the ground, a point is scored. The player who catches the ball is then the next to throw - from where the catch was completed.
A count is kept of how many times in a row the throw-bounce-catch sequence can be maintained. The aim is to beat the Team's personal best, or any other pre-arranged target number. Whenever the ball is dropped, the Team Total returns to zero.
If the ball misses the rock, it is the duty of the Team to use any method of their choosing to locate the ball. Once found, it must be thrown back to the rock with the aim of hitting it. Any person who misses the rock is teased for being inept, especially if they are someone who should know better.
The game continues until:On a sunny Saturday in April 2005, a number of University of York graduates met at the Museum Gardens in York. The girls were happy to sit in the sunshine and chat. The boys were more active, and required some sporting stimulation. The only prop to aid them in their search for such an activity was a spherical stress ball brought by Rob Heathcote. With some development chiefly from Peterobinson, but also from John Shearer and Dave Short, the game of backhand-i-ball started its development.
With the arrival of Simon Taylor and Dave Rogers soon after, the game flourished, with the scoring system being developed fully, and the terminology becoming known. This became too much for Dave Short, who went to chat to the girls. In his absense, Peter, John, Simon and Dave R made the outstanding score of 46 using just plushes and fluids. Later, double fathoms were created, but the effort of creating the extra rules resulted in the foursome being unable to meet, let alone better, their previous target.
An attempt by Peter and Simon to popularise the sport in London on Clapham Common in May 2005 failed, but the first Nottingham game was played soon after: Paul Abthorpe replaced John in the line-up from York, on an afternoon when the new foursome could manage only 26. Whether this was due to the lack-of-John or the presence-of-too-much-wine-during-Eurovision-the-night-before is difficult to say.
A spherical stress ball (or in the absense of such a tool, a tennis ball) shall be used. A team of players is required; this can be of any size though 4 seems to work particularly well.
One player places the ball on the back of his hand (generally this has to be on the back of the fingers to avoid the ball rolling off immediately). He then throws the ball from his hand to another player. Any player may catch the ball, which must always be caught on the back of the hand (including fingers). This process of throwing and catching using the back of the hand is repeated and a score increased until such time as a foul occurs or the ball touches the ground.
A foul occurs when:
Points are scored for the following:
The score is collected in a cumulative total until a foul occurs or the ball touches the ground.
There is no such thing as a Flush.