Extreme Medieval sports?

[VirgilCaine]

Around the world, there have been a lot of sports, that would work in medieval times. Soccer, as it is today, was not around that early, but the game it came from, Rugby (and probably football) evolved from, too.

There was a game similar to soccer or American football in medival times, but with fewer rules--the games weren't so much "matches" as near-riots. The goals would be hundreds of feet to miles apart, depending on the preference of the players. Team numbers were also variable--IIRC, hundreds would play. The object was to move a ball through the opponents goal. IIRC, the game was banned because of the injuries it caused.


Another interesting fact of medival games was that hopscotch was a bit different than the way children play it today--you had to jump across the board while carrying someone else on your back!
EXTREME HOPSCOTCH!!!

 

[MaxKaladin]

Hurley. Seriously. This was a Celtic team sport that was evidently VERY rough with common injuries.

 

[Nasma]

I think that the Australian Aboriginies invented an earlier form of Aussie Rules Football. Click here if you don't know what AFL is.

 

[D+1]

Quidditch? Dragon baiting? No-rules air racing with griffons, hippogriffs, pegasi?

 

[robberbaron]

Around the world, there have been a lot of sports, that would work in medieval times. Soccer, as it is today, was not around that early, but the game it came from, Rugby (and probably football) evolved from, too.

Excuse me?

Football has been played from medieval times with a variety (or lack) of rules.
It was rationalised into Association Football in 1863 (the soc of Association becoming SOCcer).
Rugby was created in 1823 when the young Rugby School student, William Webb Ellis, "in a fine disregard for the rules" picked up the ball and ran with it while playing football.

Rugby was picked up and the rules mangled in the colonies some time after this date, but they decided to call it "football" to confuse the British.

Medieval footy games often involved teams of dozens of people trying to get an inflated/stuffed bladder from one end of the village to the other.


Getting back to topic:
How about a wrestler with a dodgy shoulder? An archer who has lost his index finger?

 

[Tonguez]

Around the world, there have been a lot of sports, that would work in medieval times. Soccer, as it is today, was not around that early, but the game it came from, Rugby (and probably football) evolved from, too.

Actually Rugby evolved from real football (which Americans insist on calling Soccer) which itself evolved from earlier peasant games that involved two rival villages attempting to kill each other whilst a pigs bladder was tossed around between them for some inexplicable reason. This is the reason why English football fans continue to try and kill each other whilst their home team play a more refined form of the 'sport'
Rugby happened when a nob attending Rugby college (a school not a sports academy) had a tantrum whilst playing football and picked up the ball stuffed it up his jersey and ran away, at which point the other nobs attemopted to tackle him and decided they enjoyed this new form of rowdiness.

I know that early in New Zealand history there was a game played in a circular feild which involved trying to throw a hard boiled moa egg (about the size of a small football) at a central target whilst your opponents tried to stop you

I've also always liked the idea of Japanese log surfing (you know drag a huge log to the top of a hill, pile all your friends and family on top, wet thre hillside and then let the log slide back down to the ground and try not to get crushed when it rolls)

I suppose the running of the bulls is a kind of sport too

Basically ALL sports are essentially mock battles or really stupid fratboy stunts-turned-religious observance if you follow that line then anything is possible...

 

[Tonguez]

Excuse me?

Lol - Psyche!

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

From only a little research I can tell you that the Football Association was formed in 1863 and used the ‘Cambridge’ rules, though some rules ad been created 20-30 years earlier. Rugby dates from, pretty much, the same time. The tale of the creation of the game of Rugby at Rugby is probably just that, a tale.

The rules of Cricket were first laid down in 1744. The rules of Golf also date back to the 18th century.

The bottom line is that, unless you take the ‘Knights Tale’ view there are no mediaeval sporting heroes.

As for ‘non-combat’ games. In 1602, Sir Richard Carew described the Cornish hurling game, a forerunner of today's field sports, thus:

when the hurling is ended, you shall see them retyring home, as from a pitched battaile, with bloody pates, bones broken, and out of joynt, and such bruses as serve to shorten their daies.

Without rules football is a combat game. Cricket is violent enough with the rules!

GOM

 

[Mister Underhill]

There's also the ancient Afghan game of Buzkashi. Remember Rambo III?

 

[Gunton The Terrible]

This is an interesting topic.

However, I think its funny that a PC would want to end a career in a sport so he can pursue the less violent and/or less dangerous life of an advetnturer.

PC1:"That was close. We narrowly escaped the jaws of that dragon only to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a red wizard ritual sumoning a major devil."

PC2:"Awww that is nothing, mate. I once took an elbow in the mouth trying to score in the brunderball finals!"

:\