Going Down Under: Week 1
Posted in Blog, NSW by: LottieOnce upon a time, in a land not so far away and a dress two sizes smaller I happened by a stroke of luck to find myself working for a company who, for some bizarre reason, wanted to send me to work in Australia for a month. Easily excitable and perhaps a little naive, I hopped on a plan at the drop of a hat and found myself landing in Sydney without a clue and working with a group of strangers I’d never met before.
It wasn’t quite the free ride I had thought it would be. While I got to sample the night life of Sydney I worked day in and out to pay my way. However, I met the most amazing people who, even though they may not know it, played a role in my becoming who I am today. In all I had four Sundays in the City, nearly all of which were spent sitting on Circular Quay listening to the jazz bands play. I know, I know, poor me and yes, that is the sound of the smallest violin in the world.
Despite all the work and little of the play, I fell in love with the City and have ranted about Sydney for almost the past 7 years and I now have the chance to go back and experience Sydney the way it should be seen. Therefore I am enlisting your help.
So as I mentioned, the wonderfully smart, funny, sexy, brilliant and kind people (that should do it) at New South Wales Tourism and 1000 Heads want to send some of the blogging community to Sydney and over the next 6 weeks will be setting challenges ranging from sports to fashion to travel.
This weeks challenge revolves around sport, cricket to be specific, Aussie related sports to be less so. The aim is to devise a game which incorporate different aspects of the sports. There are no limits and we are assured that creativity is rewarded.
Here’s one they made earlier:
“Sydney Cricket is a simple game you can play anywhere. All you need to get started is a coin and an idea of the rules, which can be altered to suit any situation.
If you have the chance to mock up a board that’s bonza, or if you just want to make use of beer mats, match sticks or anything else you can lay your hands on then that works too!”
Sydney Cricket – the 1000heads version
Players agree amongst themselves the number of overs that are to be played – each over giving the player six attempts at scoring ‘runs’ (much like real cricket). Once agreed, players take it in turns to spin their coin on the playing surface and attempt to score runs. The classic version uses the board below, with players spinning from the centre circle and scoring runs by landing their coin within the rings. If your coin finishes up off the board though, you’re out… Howzat!
NB: If a coin lands between two rings, an umpire’s decision must be sought on where the majority of the coin lies and runs awarded accordingly.
Variant 3 – Sydney Roulette
A new board is used, with ‘RUN’ on one half, and ‘OUT’ on the other. Each player takes turns to keep spinning for as many goes as they dare. You can declare with a score at any time, but if you land on ‘OUT’ you end up with nothing.
Variant 4 – Bar Edition
Not got a board, but want to play Sydney Cricket? Don’t worry – you can build a board at any time from what you find around you. Say you’re in a bar, why not create a boundary of beer mats? If you stay within the boundary, no runs, but you get another go. Outside the boundary, a run. If you touch the beer mat however, you’re out!
Get it?
Ultimately, on a night out in London after a long day in a bar, we settled on the Bar Edition of the game and we all know how that ends.
But now it’s my turn. I was thinking something along the lines of Boomerang Rugby involving a boomerang and variant on Tag-Rugby Rules but it seems a little hokey. Wicke’d Cricket, think Cricket/Rounders meets strip Poker.
I am thinking of the rules for the above ideas but suggestions are more than welcome.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Free trip down under in the name of blogging? Sounds amazing!
Sydney is rather amazing, but i prefered Melbourne. The trams have such a charm about them, especially Chapel Street.
As for Strip-rounder’s-rugby…. i think it would only need some rain and an all female team and a mucky pitch and it would be a international sport the second it hit youtube…..
But in all seriousness 20-20 cricket with boomerangs sounds great! But on an aussie rule’s pitch!
August 5th, 2009 at 11:00 am
@Hugo – Muck, women, rain, tackling?. Sounds a bit like last year at Oxegen to me. I’m a serious ditz when it comes to sports, particularly cricket. I’m going to have to find myself a rule book aren’t’ I?
August 5th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Thats what wikipedia is for!
August 5th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Does it have to be a tabletop game?.. I was kinda under the impression it did, but if not, give BASEketball a watch to get your Wicke’dCricket creative juices flowing. Oh, and because it’s hilarious
If you need actual rules advice, I can help with rugby, aussie rules, international rules and kinda gaa. Only thing I’ll say about a boomerang is beware the curl. I have a real one if you want to borrow it for testing purposes
August 5th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
[...] Saturday was brilliant. Myself, Lottie, Darren and my bro were flown over to London for the Awesome Tour of Sydney competition run by [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
best i could do would be a version of sidney cricket which would be closer to the real thing. I have emailed you a document with it.
I am not sure if there is a real way to do to a tag version due to an imbalance between abtters and fielders, and the closest i have is some guys kicking a football and the fielders trying to catch it.
Hope the amended table cricket version helps and goodluck
cathal
August 5th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
@Hugo – Oui!
@Pluincee- Not at all. In fact they encourgage it to be active and unrelated to drink. All my ideas seem to mutate into drinking games for some reason. I can’t imagine why. Also, I haven’t seen BASEketball in years but I remember it being hillarious. I do need help. I will nab you to pick your brains one on one.
@irlbinky – Wow! I am humbled by your organisation. Thank you so much. I should devise some sort of helper point scheme shouldn’t I?
August 6th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I am just back from Autralia and I am already planning to go again. Its somewhere everyone should go at some point in their lives. I can give you loads of tips for places to go and things to see. I dont think a week is enough but its a start. I hope you get to go lottie and you can bring me to be your tour guide.
I know SFA about cricket other than its a bit like baseball but slower. You could do beach volleyball or aussie rules instead.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
hmmm dont know the full rules of cricket or baseball/rounders so will try and explain it simply
1) consists of 2 teams of 11 players each, 1 field fields/bowls while the other bats
2) the batsmen must bat in pairs and thus cannot bat after they loose 10th man/wicket
3) a single bowler can only bowl a maximum of 6 legal deliveries in a row
4) each of the batsmen stand beside an assembly of wood (roughly in .-.-. shape but 3 foot high), with the assemblies 22 yards apart
5) runs are scored by hitting the ball and then running between afore mentioned pieces of wood, getting the ball to the edge of teh pitch withthe ball bouncing (4 runs) without it bouncing (6 runs)
6) a batsman is out if he the ball knocks the tops off of the assembly of wood, the ball is caught without it bouncing, the assembly of wood is broken with the batsman x meters away, or the most confusing is if the umpire thinks the batsman protected teh assembly with his leg/body without playing a shot – thats leg before wicket or lbw).
7) Once 10 batsmen are out for a team they swap sides
8.) Once both sides have batted they might swap sides again (innings)
hope that helps – if you need more just poke me on twitter
~cathal
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
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August 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
[...] The Awesome Tour of Sydney Challenge – What it’s all about. [...]
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[...] Week 1,Week 2,Week 3. [...]