Throwing balls toward a target is as old as dirt. Egyptians in 5000 B.C. played with polished rocks in a game that quickly evolved to bocce or lawn bowling. As long as there have been back yards, there have been libation-friendly convivial contests. Monks in 12th century France played a game swatting a ball back and forth across a rope strung in their gardens. Tenez! The French word meaning something like “take this” is the root of the word, “tennis”. A 13th-century game called pall – mall is perhaps an ancestor of modern golf. Popular with aristocrats, the game involved knocking balls through wickets. Another alleged off-shoot of pall – mall is croquet, which arrived in England from Ireland in 1851 and consumed the nation as its most popular sport.
Croquet may have been the first mixed-sex sport, as advice books addressed the fact that girls and women often cheated, aided by long skirts that camouflaged their kicking opponent’s balls under cover. The main sport was often above the grass, as knocking an opponent’s ball into the shrubs meant a chance to help one’s opponent retrieve it. Victorian teenagers loved croquet!
As it gained popularity and spread to the U.S., the advances in production of rubber balls by Charles Goodyear set Americans to bouncing balls over nets on their croquet lawns. Shrubbery shielded the surge in popularity of women playing with men. A lighter form of “lawn tennis,” followed, called badminton, because it required less space and ball-catching shrubbery or fences.
Today, with all the online and techno temptations for families to dive into, taking it outside means connecting more than competing.
Take a look at these links for the latest in the evolution of backyard games:
HORSESHOES
Halex Premier www.amazon.com
BADMINTON www.restorationhardware.com
GIANT CHESS/CHECKERS www.frontgate.com
April 21st, 2010 at 5:25 am
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May 11th, 2010 at 1:31 am
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing …
May 11th, 2010 at 2:36 am
im using the pfluger trion gx-7 spinning rod/reel combo and the rod says up to 12lb line but the reel has 4,6 and 8lbs line. does this mean i can only use up to 8lbs? i’d like to bump it up to atleast 10 maybe 12 because i keep snapping the line casting spinner baits. i’m new to fishin and this is my first setup and i’ve lost atleast 10 spinner baits this year from my line snapping when i cast.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:41 am
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May 26th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
love the blog, thanks for sharing your thoughts
May 31st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I wanted to thank you for this great study!!
May 31st, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Baseball is the greatest sport on earth.It takes years to gain an understanding of how it is played.Once you develope that understanding, the pleasure you get from watching it are FANtastic.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:43 am
I really like following your blog as the articles are so simple to read and follow. Excellent. Please keep up the good work. Thanks.
June 6th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Funny, I was thinking along the same lines. Adam
June 11th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Really looking towards the World Cup, should really be terrific
June 11th, 2010 at 5:46 am
So pumped up about the world cup the year of 2010
June 16th, 2010 at 5:53 am
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June 20th, 2010 at 4:10 am
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June 20th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
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July 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I’m dying for fall to get here so we can beat this heat. It’s been too hot this summer to get into the back yard to play any kind of games. Dusk is the only time that is enjoyable with our 98 degree, high humidity days.