TIL about an old (14th century?) Romanian game called Oină.

in til •  2 years ago 

Think 50% Dodgeball and 25% each baseball and cricket.

It's played on a field a bit smaller than a US football field, with two end zones, a long center line, and each side divided into four nearly square zones. A defender stands at each of the 9 interior intersections, plus one each free to roam each end zone.

The offense starts with a server standing next to the batter. The server gently lobs the ball, like a tennis serve, for the batter to hit. Depending on where the ball lands, the offense may score zero, one or two points.

Then the fun starts. The previous batter lines up on the left side of their end zone. After the 2nd batter hits, the 1st one needs to run down the left half of the field to the far end zone, then across, and back down the other side. While he's doing this, the defenders standing in their 2m stations try to relay the ball to hit him, dodgeball style. The squares are only 16m long, so it's pretty intense. Defenders can leave their mark to catch, but can't strike the runner unless they're on their station.

What gets really wild is that, depending on whether runners advance or not, as many as two may be actively running the zones in each direction, and the defense may choose to throw at any of them. If they hit the runner anywhere except for the runner's palms, the defense scores two points. A runner hit on the advance side then has to go to the far endzone and attempt the return run as well.

Each of the 22 players gets a turn at bat and running, then the game is complete. It takes about 30 minutes total.

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