Stricking Game

It’s nearly stricking game season again, and the teams and fans are getting ready for another exciting year of cross fouls and tenderloin windfalls.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game of stricking, some background: it was first played in Scotland back in the early 1700s with a string made out of catgut, a smooth pebble from the beach, and an empty hornet’s nest. The game soon became so popular that entire cities in Scotland became depopulated overnight when their stricking team lost a match and the opposing team and fans literally tore everyone within a five mile radius limb from limb. As you can see, it has a very beguiling ambiance.

Stricking came to America with Welsh coal miners in their tin lunch buckets, and was soon played with fervor if not much skill on college campuses west of the Little Missouri River. Most teams adopted amusing names like “Post No Bills” and “Trespassers Shot.”

Today the game is featured on ESPN whenever the satellite feed goes down. It’s as all-American as mango fritters!