it's not you, it's me. and my sport Part III
Thursday, 6 March 2014
So without further ado I am pleased to announce that the winner of the this-sport-is-definitely-more-daggy-than-orienteering competition is… drum roll…
this one. [trust me, just click on the link - no further explanation will be required]
So I'm sure you'll agree it's a worthy winner. There is the tiny little problem that it's not really a live sport anymore (interestingly enough I discovered that previous junior superstars of the sport actually went on to win medals in other events at Sochi - proving again that even the daggiest of sports is worthy). But back to the problem that it's not really a sport anymore..luckily we have an emergency backup sport…
Korfball. Korfball has a number of classic daggy indicators. Firstly no-one's ever heard of it, secondly, it's big in Europe - in fact I discovered there's even an semi professional Dutch team there. Thirdly it has a funny sounding name that doesn't give any indication of what the sport is about, forthly it has a funny basket thing, fifthly it's mixed - I just can't take a sport seriously that plays in a mixed format at the highest level - socially sure, internationally.. nup… sixthly you'd probably never ever meet anyone who knew what it was, although from my research your chances of not having to explain it would be increased if you lived in SA. (always the progressive state!). Korfball has the problem of being very similar in game-play to netball, which we all know is huge in Australia. It would take some heavyweight marketing from the korfball association (and probably some sort of physical torture) to convince young sportspeople that they'd be better off playing a Dutch sport no-one has heard of with a funny name rather than signing up for netball where they could aspire to the Commonwealth Games and maybe even the um.. World Games, or possibly even score a part in an advertisement for Lean-Cuisine. I guess in either sport you wouldn't make any money (unless you played for that Dutch Korfball team) but that's a whole other kettle of gender-related fish I won't even start on.
What korfball does have going for it is that like most of the other daggy sports it looks fun to play, and you get to wear a relatively normal uniform. So if you stopped to get petrol on your way home from a game of korfball the service station attendant would assume you had just played soccer or basketball, as opposed to suspecting you had been thrown out of clown school because you shrunk your costume in the wash.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any korfball organisation in Tasmania so I can't add it to my list of obscure sports in which I'm quite competent. Luckily for Clare it looks like she can join a local Victorian club however i think she has her sights set on something else..
In fact if you haven't been across to read Clare's blog you should head on over now as she's been writing about the same topic simultaneously and you'll see why she's the actual published author (get it now from amazon) and I'm better suited to Royal Tennis. 
Oh, and the prize for being the worlds daggiest sport that's playable in Australia...? 
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh - and after a flood that swept under our house a few years after we wrote this, I stumbled across someone who did actually sew their badges on.. |