Gateball

Gateball was invented in Japan in 1946, and is a form of five-a-side speed croquet. It's played on a hard surface with just three hoops. The key feature is the 'spark' shot - a croquet stroke in which a foot is placed on the striker's ball, often used to send the opponent's ball out of bounds. Gateball has become very popular throughout the Far East, with around two million devotees in Japan.

• The balls are much smaller, and bouncier, than croquet balls. Each is printed with a number from 1 to 10, and the odds (white) play against the evens (red). Players wear numbered bibs to identify themselves.
• Play is in sequence, from 1 to 10.
• As well as the five members of each team, there may be a non-playing captain, who controls tactical decisions. It's therefore possible to conduct a game where all ten players know nothing about what they're doing. Alternatively, it's possible to have a bench of raucous team-mates shouting conflicting orders at a bemused player.
• The hoops, or gates, are a foot wide, and balls don't come into play until the striker has passed the first gate from the boundary (four metres).
• Any ball which goes out of bounds stays there until the next turn, at which point it may be played back onto the pitch, but may not score or touch another ball.
• Touching (the equivalent of roqueting in croquet) another ball entitles the striker to pick up the other ball, and place it in contact. The next shot - the spark - is played with a foot on the striker's ball, which must not move.
• Each shot has a ten second time limit. The game uses chess clocks to give each side a total time limit of 30 minutes.
• The game is supervised by a referee, an umpire (who checks - amongst other things - if a ball goes out of bounds), and a timekeeper/scorer.
• Breaks - the main feature of croquet - don't really occur in gateball, which focuses more on outpositioning the opposing team.

Originally, Gateball was conceived as a game for children, but has become popular with retired people in Japan. In rural China, it seems to have developed a status similar to that of village cricket in England - league matches take place between neighbouring villages, with fierce rivalry.