Anyone interested in foreign sports?

Occasionally I watch NHK World News to see the latest sumo bashos. They just finished the latest one, and it’s always exciting when the final day arrives and there’s a chance there has to be an extra match to choose a winner.
There’s also Aussie Rules Football, which is a nice late night alternative (to people on the East Coast). Anything else?

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I tried to figure out Australian football one midnite. I couldn’t.

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A friend got me into Aussie Rules Football and Rugby. I loathe soccer (partly because of the way the local soccer fans here in Portland worked to eliminate our baseball team), but I like those.

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Crokinole.

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Back in the early days of ESPN, they showed a lot of Australian Rules Football. It was interesting but not enough to get seriously into it. Though that would have been a lot harder back then than now.

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I dare someone to explain how the heck cricket works and make it understandable.

yeah, that’s what I thought. :smiley:

I have watched Rugby and enjoyed it.

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It’s like baseball except there’s only 2 bases and the runners are always in a pickle.

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All I know of cricket is from an episode of the YouTube gaming show Continue? where the guys played Super International Cricket for the SNES, and I was screaming with laughter at the guys having no idea as to what was going on.

“YOU HIT HIM! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! … WHAT IS THIS SPORT!?!”

Which is to say, I am interested in cricket.

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Speaking of Cricket… Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938).

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The Brits played a version of American Baseball called “Rounders”? I remember the line from Lady Vanishes (1938). Looked it up. Apparently so.

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In my experience rounders is a game played mainly by kids in school. EDIT: looking at that picture what I associate as rounders is a lot more like watered down baseball than that. Superficially it seems very similar to baseball although I’m not too familiar with baseball as that has little traction over here (despite having seen quite a few baseball films lol). I think it uses a shorter bat though, presumably to reduce the striking distance.

About 25 years ago Scotland had their own American Football team - The Scottish Claymores - and they even won World Bowl '96 but outside of that I haven’t noticed the sport to be to particularly popular here. At least in terms of participation as I’ve known a few people who watch it and it isn’t that unusual for people to have Superbowl parties. Nobody understands the rules but they’re usually too drunk to care anyway.

This is the extent of my education on cricket.
krikkitmen

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competitive cycling is fun to watch in person and is big in europe

I will pretty much watch any sport. Love the Olympics as a way to watch sports it’s hard to see on the regular in the States. Archery is one of my favorites. Love non-MLB baseball (actually any baseball). Australian rules football, cricket, sepak takraw, and hurling are all amazing even though I don’t really understand them.

Kabaddi?

Well, I occasionally watch an American Football game, but the time differences are a pain. So it is usually when they play one of their games in London.

I watched a couple of Kabaddi games recently, and the sport is hugely different to what I remember, back in the early Nineties. Similar basic rules, but so many other changes.
The most obvious one is that it is now played indoors on mats, instead out outdoors on sand. This has made for big changes in style, speed and general athleticism.

I hadn’t heard of it, so I looked it up. Absolutely yes.

Here’s one I reckon will be new to most on here - Cycle-ball. Like indoor Soccer, played on bicycles. Not a modern gimmick either, as it dates from the 19th Century, with the first World Championship held in 1929.

I’m a long-term Rugby League fan. For those who don’t know, Rugby split into two separate sports (Rugby League and Rugby union) in 1895, and it wasn’t amicable. In fact, it got seriously nasty at times, and the distrust still lingers for good reason. Anyhoo, you might enjoy this.