Double Corner Ball

Source: Games For The Playground, Home, School And Gymnasium
Category: BALL GAMES



_14 to 100 players._

_Gymnasium; playground._

_2 basket balls._

This game is one of the comparatively few in which a large
number of players may be kept actively engaged at the same
time. The game was developed by Miss Caroline M. Wollaston of
New York City, through whose kindness it is here given. There
are practically two games going on at once, in which each
player participates in rotation.

GROUND
The ground for this game should be outlined in a square
measuring about forty by forty feet. In each corner is marked a small
goal, the two goals at one end belonging to one team, say the Blues,
and the two goals at the other end belonging to the opposing, or Red,
team. Near the center are marked two small circular goals for the
throwers of the different teams. The thrower for the Red team stands
in the center goal farthest removed from the red corners; the thrower
for the Blue team in the goal farthest removed from the Blue corners.

Two basket balls are needed for the game.

TEAMS
Any number of players, from fourteen to one hundred, may play.
These are divided into two teams. While it is advisable to have the
two teams even in numbers, an odd player may be assigned to either
team.

Each team chooses its own captain. Each captain selects two goal
keepers, players who can jump and catch well being best for this
position. These two goal keepers are assigned to goals at the same end
of the ground, each being guarded by guards from the opposite team. If
desired, a halt may be called during the game, and the goal keepers
changed for others designated by the captain. This is sometimes
desirable to rest players filling this arduous position, and sometimes
for the purpose of distributing among the players opportunities for
this kind of play.

The remaining players are guards, and are divided by the captain into
two parties, one for each of the opponents' corner goals. The
following method has been found to work quickly and well for this
purpose: The captain lines up his players and numbers them, taking any
number that he chooses for himself. Those having odd numbers are sent
to guard one goal, and those having even numbers to guard the other
goal. Each guard should remember well his number, as there is a
constant rotation of players according to number.



OBJECTS OF GAME
The first object of the game is for a thrower on the
center base to throw a ball to one of the corner goal men of his own
team; each ball so caught by the goal keeper scores. One very
distinctive feature of this game is the fact that each guard becomes,
in turn, thrower for his team.

Another object of the game is for the guards to prevent the corner
goal men from catching the ball. This is not only for defensive play,
to prevent the opponents from scoring, but has a positive value, there
being a separate guard score, each ball that a guard catches and holds
scoring for his team. This scoring for catches by the guards has the
advantage of calling for especially active work from the guards, with
much jumping in it, and leads to skillful play for catching the ball
so as to hold it instead of merely touching it.

START
The game starts with Number One of each team in his respective
throwing base in the center, the guards being disposed in one or two
ranks around the goals they are to guard. Each center baseman holds a
ball, which he puts in play at the referee's whistle, or other signal,
by throwing to one of the corner goal keepers of his team.

Each guard, as he becomes thrower, throws only to the corner on his
side of the field. For instance, the guards bearing odd numbers being
on the right side of the field, when player Number One throws from the
center base, he will throw to the corner man on the right. Similarly,
when player Number Two takes his turn at the throwing base, he will
throw to the corner goal on the left-hand side of the field, as his
party of guards are stationed at the left-hand side.

RULES AND POINTS OF PLAY
The game opens with guard Number One in the
center base, ready to throw the ball to the corner. Each thrower has
but one throw at a turn, whether it be successful or not. Immediately
that a thrower has tossed the ball, he steps back to his place among
the guards, and the guard bearing the next number steps into the
throwing base. The players must keep their own watch for turns to do
this, and each should therefore observe at the opening of the game
which guard bears the number next before his. This will be a player in
the opposite division of guards of his team, as the odd numbers are
guarding one corner and the even numbers another.

When each player of a team has thrown from a center base, the numbers
begin over again in regular rotation. Thus, if Number Sixteen be the
last thrower, Number One follows him.

Whoever catches a ball thrown to a corner, whether it be the corner
goal keeper or one of the guards surrounding him, throws the ball
immediately back to the center base, supposedly to the next player,
who should have stepped at once to the base when the previous thrower
left it. Should this next player not have reached the center base in
time to catch the ball, he picks up the ball and throws it to the
proper goal keeper; but it behooves a player to be at the center base
in time to catch a ball returned from a corner, because every such
catch scores.

A ball caught on the center base is, of course, a return ball from the
corner to which a predecessor threw it, and must be a fair throw,
whether sent by one of the opponents' guards or his own goal keeper.

It may make clearer the rotation of the play to illustrate as follows:
The game opens with Number One ready on the center base belonging to
his team. His group of guards, that is, those bearing the odd numbers,
are guarding the corner behind him on the right-hand side of the
field. He therefore throws the ball on the referee's signal to the
corner goal keeper for his team at the opposite end of the ground on
the right-hand side. Immediately that he has thrown the ball, he steps
back among his group of guards bearing the odd numbers, and Number Two
of his team, who belongs to the group of guards on the left-hand side
of the field, steps forward at once to the center base. Meanwhile, the
ball may have been caught by the goal keeper to whom it was thrown, or
by one of the guards surrounding him. It is at once tossed back to the
center base from which it came, and Number Two guard should be there
to catch it.

Number Two then throws the ball to the goal keeper for his team on the
left-hand side of the ground. Whoever catches it at once throws it
back to the same throwing base, and Number Three should be there to
receive it, Number Two having returned to the ranks of his guards. So
the game goes on, the guards each taking a turn at the throwing base,
and each throwing the ball to the corner goal keeper on his side of
the field.

Meanwhile, the same sort of game is being played by the opposite team,
two balls being in play at once, and each guard taking part in each
game for each team, according as he is guard around an opponent's
corner goal or a thrower from the center base to his own goal men.

Each goal keeper and thrower must keep one foot in his goal or base.
It is thus permissible for a goal keeper to step out of his goal with
one foot, or lean far out of the goal to catch the ball. Of course the
best kind of a throw to a goal keeper is a high curved ball that will
go over the heads of the guards and fall within his goal. No guard may
step within the goal he guards.

Violation of the rules about overstepping territory constitutes a
foul, and scores for the opposing team.

Very alert and rapid play is needed to make this game a success. As
one team (Blues) may play faster than the other (Reds), it is not
necessary that Number Six of the Red team and Number Six of the Blue
team, for example, should be on the center throwing bases at the same
time. The two games go on independently of each other.

FOULS
The overstepping of boundaries in ways not allowed by the
rules score one for the opponents.

SCORE
A goal keeper scores one point for his team every time that he
catches a ball which has not been touched by one of the guards around
his goal. A ball caught by a goal keeper after being touched by a
guard does not score.

In addition to the score made by goal keepers, a guards' score is
kept, each player counting the number of balls he catches and holds,
no matter where he be standing, whether in his position as guard or in
the center base from which he is to be thrower. Such a catch by a
guard scores one point, the guards reporting their points at the end
of the game. Touching the ball does not score under any circumstances.
It must be caught and held.

Fouls score for opponents, as stated under "Fouls."

The score for the game for either side is the sum of all of the balls
caught, according to the above rules, by the goal keepers and guards
on that side. The game is usually played on time limits of from twenty
to forty minutes.

For experienced players, scoring by guards may be omitted if desired.
The particular object of this feature is to encourage guards to expert
work in catching the ball, instead of merely interfering.


Next: Drive Ball

Previous: Schoolroom Dodgeball

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