h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Patball" has been played in my high school since my year first attended, and though everyone agrees that our year brought it to the school, no one can agree where it originated. Every primary school seemed to have its own patball heritage and claim to its invention.

To play patball requires a tennis ball, a stretch of wall, and as many players as is feasible for the said stretch of wall. Order of play was designated by calling (similar to 'bagseying', but the word was out of fashion at the time) your position first. The first player 'served' by simply bouncing the ball off the ground into the wall, and players subsequently took it in turns to do the same. One bounce was allowed to occur prior to hitting the ball, and one after. Allowing the ball too many times on your turn or after you hit it meant that you were out. Missing the designated stretch of wall meant that you were out. Play was resumed with the first in the remaining order serving again.

The beauty of patball lay in that it was referreed by all of the competitors, whether out or not. While on the surface this can seem unfair, it was probably the best method of deciding the general character of other competitors. Cheaters were easy to spot and just as easily ousted by everyone else. Sore losers generally got no satisfaction. Thus it became a great tool (or maybe I'm just exaggerating it with an enthusiastic memory, I can definitely remember heated desputes between former friends and all being well afterwards). There were also several 'rules calls' which applied to certain situations. "Obs" (short for obstruction) applied to anything or one that disturbed the path of the ball or a player during play, and eliminated any direct form of cheating or exclusion. "Mids" applied to when the ball bounced on the ground and hit the wall simultaneously, making the bounce awkwardly, or if the ball hit any form of gutter or drainage track in front of the wall which often had the same effect. Some variants included "skanky bounce" (come on, we were kids ) which was when this occured on a serve.

The "final", between the last two players was often fairly tense and hectic affair, with excitment on a level comparable with that of professional tennis, except with much, much smaller competitors and a shorter timeframe (morning break was 15-30 mins in most schools and lunch about an hour, which had to include eating). Once the final winner had emerged, the game quickly began again, sometimes with additional players who had waited patiently to play.

When there were more players than feasible, the first to go out would stay out in order for a new player to join. This would carry on until there were just enough players (or until breaktime ended). When players were lacking, "lives" were introduced to keep the game going, players who lost the designated number of lives were out.

Thats the complex explanation of patball. Like most popular childhood games, when I was 8, it was like second nature . I also remember playing four square, ultimate frisbee (for which I developed some impressive 'trick' techniques) and curby (on my road). Patball has stuck in my mind only because its continuing survival in the lower years of my high school.

*sighs* childhood was a blast...

[HP}=~~

Hi, I'm 15 and still play patball. It's still a great game and my favourite of playground games. Somehow it never gets boring, it become more and more enjoyable the better you are at it. Even some adults admit to playing it. There is a move called the low-cut which me and friends have mastered which involves bending down as the ball comes to you, and hitting it extremely low and fast. If you mangage this one low enough, with enough power and placement, the next player in line has almost no chance. What I really love about patball are the really long rallies which go on and on forever, and sometimes cause me to fall down laughing. Also there is the sneaky dummy shot, like a drop shot in tennis which bounces really close to the wall, and catches the player off guard. I always do this one if the guy is standing too far back, preparing for a low-cut.