Billytea - I had a similar experience. I also remember the time we invented Bodyline Bowling at primary school - it's bloody efficient, you know!

A few years ago at LISA, the system administrator conference, they had a "horror story" contest. The winning entry was The Last Game of Cricket.

However, if I'm listening to a Canadian I can tell after a while. To me most of them sound a little Scottish.

Putting Caroma on some kind of list.

I would love to be able to play dodge ball again.

Well, watch out for hyena people then.

A lot of what was listed in moonlit's post resonates with me, too. However, with even more cars on the roads nowadays, it's probably a good thing that seatbelt and bike helmets are enforced by law.

I can still remember the cuts and bruises we used to give and get, while playing red rover at lunchtime in Primary school. We were murderous little buggers, who thought nothing of elbowing someone in the throat to get away.

When we weren't playing red rover, we were playing "brandy" in the old tennis court. No net but really high chain-link fences, so perfect for a game. When you Americans say "dodge ball" do you specifically mean the type of game we saw in "The Pack"? Our game of "brandy" was played with a tennis ball and no teams. You got hit, you waited outside the fence until the next game. The ball comes your way, you grab it and throw it at whomever you want. Last boy or girl standing is the winner.

**popping in for a moment**

I just have to say that I find all of this cricket information very, well, informative. Wish I'd known all this ten years ago when I first read Life, the Universe, and Everything. Large chunks of that book made no sense to me whatsoever.

Of course, that's pretty much par for the course when I'm reading Adams. I completely and totally did not get the end of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency because I went into it not knowing a damn thing about "Xanadu" or Coleridge. This led to an amazing epiphany in the middle of Junior Year British Lit class.

I just have to say that I find all of this cricket very, well, informative. Wish I'd known all this ten years ago when I first read Life, the Universe, and Everything. Large chunks of that book made no sense to me whatsoever.

Just to make it even weirder: he originally wrote that story as a Doctor Who spec script called Doctor Who and the Krikketmen.

When you Americans say "dodge ball" do you specifically mean the type of game we saw in "The Pack"?

That's the one. And I think anyone who wants to play it again is nuts.

There was something on the news a few months ago, about how they were getting teachers to teach children those playground games because they are being forgotten. Kids don't just play like they used to, so games like four-square, skipping (the rhymes) and red-rover aren't being passed down to kids. It's also part of an attempt to make kids more active again.

I don't see a lot of kids playing like they used to. Mostly it seems to be supervised play-- when it happens at all, which we almost never had. (Though an adult was just a "MOM!" away.) the only kids I ever see playing unsupervised belong to someone in my co-op, and they really could use the supervision.

Kids don't just play like they used to, so games like four-square, skipping (the rhymes) and red-rover aren't being passed down to kids.

What's four-square? I'm wondering if it's similar to the handball (or hand tennis) that we used to play when I was at high school.

But have you seen the UK equivalent, Bulldog? 30 kids each side of a "pitch". They run at each other and try and force the other side back. No rules