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Student Team Sports: The Weird, the Wonderful and the Wizards
By Laura Bridgestock
Updated July 30, 2015 Updated July 30, 2015"I wish I'd joined the tiddlywinks team..."
After spending my school years gradually coming to terms with my lack of hand-eye coordination, by the time I got to university I was ready to call it a day on team sports, and just go for the occasional solitary jog.
However, that didn’t stop me signing up to all sorts of team sports during freshers’ week. Unable to resist the enthusiasm of the sports fanatics waving flyers at me (or just too worn out to say no), I ended up on the mailing lists of all kinds of clubs, including one for something called ‘ultimate Frisbee’, which I’d never heard of before.
I’ve still never tried it, but from what I can work out, ‘ultimate’ (as it’s widely known, to avoid infringing on the copyrighted Frisbee brand) is a bit like netball, in that you can’t move when you’re holding the Frisbee flying disc. And a bit like rugby or American football, in that you play on a field and score by getting the Frisbee disc to touch down at one end of the pitch.
Taking the ‘do as I say, not as I did’ approach, I think the sports-phobic among us can learn a lesson here: university may offer team sports you’ve either never heard of – or at least never really thought of as a sport.
Here are some examples I’ve found:
Tiddlywinks
Think tiddlywinks is just for kids? Think again, say some of the world’s most prestigious universities. The tiddlywinks kit consists of a small plastic container, and lots of small round plastic discs (‘winks’). Each player has a set of same-coloured winks, and uses a slightly larger disc (‘squidger’) to jump the winks towards the pot, by pressing down on one edge. The aim is to get your own winks in the pot, and stop your opponents by covering (‘squopping’) their winks with your own. Apparently the adult tiddlywinks game has lots of other rules, and also lots more fun words, including gromp, scrunge and boondock.
The two universities at the top of the QS World University Rankings 2011/12 (Cambridge, UK, and Harvard, US) both have a long history of tiddlywinks playing. Coincidence? Probably.
Starcraft II
For those, like me, who are not au fait with the gaming world, Starcraft II is a military sci-fi video game played in real time. I’ll be honest: I’m still not quite sure how this works in a club scenario. But apparently it’s an ‘e-sport’ and it’s possible to play it in tournaments. One thing’s for sure though: Starcraft II is VERY popular. Quite a few universities have Starcraft clubs, including the University of Toronto, Canada.
Rock-paper-scissors
If you pride yourself on your prowess at this just-killing-time classic, you’ll be pleased to hear that a surprising number of universities have clubs dedicated to rock-paper-scissors including Glasgow University, UK, and the University of Florida, US.
There’s no equipment required – you just need two people and one hand each. The concept is simple: you count to three, and then at the same time both players reveal their playing hand in one of three positions: flat (paper), fisted (rock) or with two fingers extended (scissors). If the hands are the same, it’s a draw. If not, scissors beat paper, paper beats rock, rock beats scissors. A silly way to spend your leisure time? Maybe. But a game of rock-paper-scissors could be just what you need after a day playing lectures-library-labs.
College Quidditch
“That’s not even a real (or physically possible) game!” I hear you cry. Well, that hasn’t stopped groups of people worldwide starting college quidditch teams. ‘Quidditch for muggles’ (that’s non-magic people, for those who’ve somehow managed to avoid absorbing the Harry Potter lingo) is based as closely as possible on the game in the books. Obviously there’s no flying; instead, players hold brooms between their legs as they run about the pitch.
The playing positions in college quidditch are the same as in the books. Each team has three ‘chasers’, who try to score by getting the ‘quaffle’ (a large ball) into one of three goals. The two ‘beaters’ throw balls called ‘bludgers’ at the opposing team to impede their play. The keeper guards the goals and the seeker tries to catch the ‘snitch’. In the books, this is a small ball which zooms about magically; in the non-magic version, it’s a ball in a sock attached to a person who runs around as fast as s/he can.
According to the International Quidditch Association, college quidditch is now played at more than 300 schools and universities in the US, and also in at least 12 other countries. So there.
Nerdfighting, tricking and cosplay
I’d like to conclude by giving a special mention to the University of Auckland, New Zealand. It’s ranked at 82 in the QS World University Rankings, but I reckon it’s number one in the (entirely unofficial) Getting-Creative-About-What-Constitutes-a-Viable-Student-Club Ranking. It’s got clubs dedicated to cosplay, Rubik’s cubes, ‘nerdfighting’, live action role playing, Magic: The Gathering, transcendental meditation and ‘tricking’ – at least half of which I had to look up.
Let me know if your university can beat these weird team sports/ you’d like to try running around with a broom between your legs/ you’ve got a better idea.
This article was originally published in March 2012 . It was last updated in July 2015
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The former editor of TopUniversities.com, Laura oversaw the site's editorial content and student forums. She also edited the QS Top Grad School Guide and contributed to market research reports, including 'How Do Students Use Rankings?'
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