Roque

Roque emerged early in the 20th Century, and was played at the 1904 Olympics in St Louis, Missouri. The USA provided the only competitors, and it has remained an exclusively American game since. It's played on an octagonal hard court, bordered by a low concrete wall. The balls are rubber, and may be bounced off the sides. The game faded from popularity in the 1960s, and is now thought to be extinct.

The rapid decline of roque remains a mystery. In its early years, roque courts were constructed everywhere, but many were concreted over for parking space as car ownership increased. The puzzling question is why there is so little documentation for a game that appeared to be so widespread. It's been suggested that developers of the game exaggerated its popularity and built playing facilities faster than the game could possibly have grown.

Roque features prominently in John Steinbeck's 1954 novel Sweet Thursday. Chapter 8 concerns "The Great Roque War", in which two factions lead to the self-destruction of a roque club.

Roque also makes an appearance in Stephen King's novel The Shining. Stanley Kubrick's film version seemed to find the roque mallet lacked some impact as a madman's weapon, and replaced it with an axe.