Ah, cut that, I only just saw that you singled out field handball. Yeah, that’s very German, but also very niche and paling in comparison with indoor handball.
Regarding the age of the movie, true enough. A lot changes in 25+ years.
This article seems to give a good lay of the land of US lacrosse right now. Pretty much covers all the areas we’ve mentioned in these last few posts, plus adds Colorado. There’s been much growth in amateur/scholastic lacrosse over the last 20 years.
Florida is a bit of a surprise to me because of the weather – is lacrosse contemporaneous with the basketball season? Still, I did see that the University of Jacksonville now has a respectable DI NCAA lacrosse team. I didn’t see any other major Florida universities/colleges on this list, but there could be a small school listed that I don’t realize is in Florida.
Lacrosse was apparently played at my English girls’ school, because we had old lacrosse sticks in the cupboard and the names of Lacrosse school captains listed on a board outside the gym. But the names stopped at 1939.
Yeah, it’s a subtle thing. “Niche” is commonplace, it that makes sense. It’s when something is “huge!” here but “what’s that?” there that things get interesting.
Still, it’s been a lot of fun to learn about the niche-ist of the niche sports around the globe. Almost feels like we’re brainstorming for an 80s TV program or something. The pitch: “Wide World of Sport meets Real People!”
My info about FL Lacrosse is about high schools, not colleges.
Given the dismal state of FL colleges, I’d not be surprised to learn there are no college teams in FL.
If you want to have a real niche sport that’s only popular in one region of a country, there’s Bavarian Fingerhakeln, Finger Pulling. It’s more of a bar or rather beer hall sport, but it’s sometimes played seriously and for money.
The University of Jacksonville, as it happens, is the only NCAA D1 men’s lacrosse program in the state. Interestingly, the big Florida football schools – Florida, Florida State, and USF – have D1 women’s lacrosse programs, as does Jacksonville and Stetson (surely a Title IX consideration).
There are several Florida universities that compete in both men’s and women’s lacrosse in NCAA D2. The University of Tampa has to be by far the largest of these schools, at least by number of students. Of the rest of the Florida D2 list, I’ve heard only of Florida Southern and Embry-Riddle (!).
EDIT: Of Embry-Riddle … that’s kind of like when I saw that one of the DeVry University campuses (yes, the 1990s-commercials DeVry) had an NCAA basketball team. Had to be D3 or something.
First fistball (ow!) and now finger pulling (ow! again). I’ll remember to keep my eyes averted in Bavarian beer halls.
And your nose, if the finger pulling provokes the traditional response…
The first rule of Finger Pulling is:
“You may only pull a finger, not a nose or a penis”…
The Lumberjack World Championships are held in Hayward, WI. Most competitors are from 4 countries (US, Canada, Australia, NZ) but there are folks from a variety of European countries and Japan.
The Stihl Timbersports series has many national competitions, a lot more widespread than previously. Apparently cutting wood is a fairly common skillset worldwide.
Huh, I thought that was a central Indiana thing - we have a couple alleys in Indianapolis.
My answer to the OP is mheibes, the Iraqi game where you have to determine which of 45 other people is holding a ring in their hand.
Jai alai has been mentioned, mostly a Basque thing. Related are all the forms of Basque Pelota, also mostly but not exclusively played in the Basque Countries. As most good sports it can be played by any kid anywhere where there is a wall and any kind of ball, and can be played at a professional level with strict rules.
Eisstockschiessen, or Bavarian curling, also known as Ice stock sport, is only played in Bavaria, as far as I know.
Nine pin bowling or kegeln is very European, and it is not even played in all of Europe. Mostly Central Europe. In Spain, for instance, I never heard of it. And I read that it is also played in Brazil.
Probably the Bagginses, my precioussss…
Mozart was said to be an enthusiast:
A week and a half before composing the Trio, during the summer of 1786, Mozart completed the 12 Duos for Two Horns, K. 487, which bears the inscription, “while playing skittles” on the autograph manuscript.
Calumny!
Kudos for the shout out of duckpin bowling. I think its epicenter was here in the Baltimore area. The early Saturday evening tv show “Duckpins for Dollars” was must see and I think of it every time I watch the movie “Slap Shot” where the players are killing time watching the local bowling show.
“I’d like to say hi to all the guys down at the plant.”
For both netball and cricket, the Netherlands are messing up your cultural/linguistic exclusivity there. The Dutch play quite a bit of both.
I knew cricket is played quite a bit, cricket has spilled out into a number of other nations Afghanistan is another one.
Your comment about netball I found surprising so I looked it up. They have 8 clubs with a total of 250 members I wouldn’t call that quite a bit.
I did see St Maartin is ranked 32nd in the world second only to UAE (25th) among nations not formerly part of the British Empire.
Not sure that’s a fair assessment, as it’s not taking into account that netball’s also widely played in Dutch schools and they recently started participating in international competitions. If the Dutch shouldn’t be described as playing netball, maybe Americans shouldn’t be described as playing soccer?