Themiclesian football
Themiclesian football (擲丸, dryik-gwar) is a ball sport with several variations whose common objective is to take control of two objects—a ball and a flag—and to deliver the ball into scoring areas or baskets located along the field of play. The primary challenge is evading an opposing team's attempts to deprive possession of either the ball or flag, both being necessary to score. The dynamic of the game occurs in the geometry of and placement of scoring areas and the rules regarding passing of the flag and ball: the flag cannot fly through the air, while the ball in play cannot bounce more than twice. Additional rules may be enforced to create more hazards.
While the primitive form of the sport is thought to be derived from the sport known in Menghe and Dayashina as tsjuk-kjuk (蹴鞠), it has since been influenced by Casaterran sports to an extent, introducing the element of movement and outright scoring. The sport, for its many hazards and restrictions, has been called a "quintessentially Themiclesian" one. In previous centuries, the sport also has a uniquely military connotation to it—the game was initially thought to approximate some kind of battle-field manoeuvre.
History
Game description
Clothing
While Themiclesian football has many aspects that render it similar to contact sports such as Gridiron football and rugby, it is a non-contact sport; rules penalize both intentional and unintentional contact. As such, no protective padding or helmets are worn.
Until the middle of the 1800s, players usually wore customary Themiclesian attire, though this reflected the quotidian dress of the parochial player base more than anything else. The typical ensemble consisted of a bathrobe-like upper garment and long, wide pants with unclosed flies tied to the knee for ease of movement. Standardized ensembles only became used when teams became permanent and competition more than casual after the Themiclesian Civil War (ending 1530). In modern playing, there are few official attire rules, the convenience of players being the most salient factor instead.
The ball passed between players and used to score points is made from a core of feathers packed into an animal sack, then surfaced with glue and cork, then stiched with leather. The feather is first boiled in water to make it pliable, so that it can be stuffed effectively into the sack. The sack is then slowly wind-dried to remove moisture. Pulverized cork is applied across the sack with glue and used to mask any imperfections and stitch-marks. Sheepskin is traditionally used to finish the ball. The ball must be visibly-spheroidal (imperceptible deviations are permissible), at least 45.7 cm in diameter, and weigh no more than 380 g. This means larger balls are possible, though this is not to the tactical advantage of any team.
The flag (縌) used is derived from an officer's brocade ribbon that held his seal to his sash. Along with the sash, the ribbon is a symbol of office in both military and civilian contexts. Its strands are woven from silk and then twined together. Traditionally, the colour is pale blue, being the ribbon colour of the most junior military officers entitled to one's use; today, ribbons of any colour may be used for visibility.
Playing field and scoring areas
The ordinary field of play measures 150 by 60 meters, but other dimensions may be used with players' agreement. Most televised matches in league play use the standard field. In the past, it was common for teams to agree on a "permanent deviation" (e.g. between Team A and Team B, a field of 100 by 50 is agreed upon for an entire playing season) if expecting to play each other for a prolonged series of games, but with the construction of dedicated stadiums with immovable seating and the rotation of home/away games, this has become rare.
The field is divided along its long side into equal sixths called stadia, and each sixth is further divided into equal sixths called steps. One half is called the "safe end", while the other, the "hazard end". The field is also halved along its short side, creating "field north" and "field south". This nomenclature has nothing to do with the actual orientation of the field itself, but "field south" is always the side of the field next to the "chase gallery".
Flanking the field on all four sides are scoring areas, usually called galleries after tennis. They are asymmetrically arranged along both axes. Closer to the safe end, there is a scoring area, the "safe gallery" divided into two halves corresponding to field north and south, each one step deep. On the opposite side, there is the "hazard gallery" two steps deep. The gallery closer to field north is the "recovery gallery", one step deep, and the one opposite it the "chase gallery", two steps deep. At the very edge of the playing field, there is a rope suspended, called the tape.
During play, each team is assigned to one end of the field. The stade closest to the end galleries are off-limits to the team of the other end.
Players
Each side may field between eight and sixteen players at any given time.
Point play
To start the game, a member of the team on the safe end, holding the flag, called the advance, take the ball and fling it, with any part of the body that is not the arm or hand, into the air. Players on the advance may go beyond the middle of the field only after the ball is airborne. After this, the advance will attempt to position its players so as to receive the ball and then send it through the air to another member, avoiding interception by the defence, until they have reached a favourable position from which a player may win the point outright by delivering the ball. The first pass from the initial fling must occur within 62.9 yards of the centre line, after which passes may be made anywhere; thus the advance cannot score by flinging the ball into the gallery directly. Since a team member must hold the flag to score, it is passed to them by a runner, while the ball is passed through the air. Since the ball cannot be carried while moving while the flag is not effectively thrown, the flag must be carried by a different player.
The ball is allowed to bounce once on the ground before it is touched by a receiver, and if it were to bounce twice, a chase (viz. below) is laid down; only if it bounces a third time will the point die. If Lord Bri's Rule is being played (as in most games), if the first bounce happens to be higher than the receiving player's head, the second bounce is counted as the first. But if the flag is dropped to the ground at all, the point is awarded to the defence. While the flag could legally be thrown, it does not fly well through the air, and at higher levels it is only effectively passed from hand to hand. It is forbidden to weigh the flag down with a coin pouch or another heavy thing (like a leaded border) to make it easy to throw, as a common form of foul play when each team formerly supplied its own flag.
There are variations in the rules regarding scoring. In professional leagues for both men and women, a good delivery is diagonal, that is a delivery taken by a player standing in field south must land in gallery north, and vice versa; a ball landing in the wrong half of the gallery does not score. In amateur play, diagonal or straight delivery (where the ball may land on any part of the quarter to be good) is usually agreed upon by the tournament or by players.
Technically, the objective of the defence is the same as the advance, being able to score by delivering a ball into the gallery behind the advance; however, this is rarely pursued because the game's rules give the advance an advantage in ordinary play that is nearly insurmontable if the advance play competently (normally the first pass for the advance occurs . At high level, very rarely would the advance be so far out-manoeuvred that the defence could control both flag and ball, manoeuvre behind the advance, and score outright. The safe galleries (defended by the advance) into which the defence must score are only about 1/3 as deep than the hazard galleries (defended by the defence); this means the delivery trajectory needs to be considerably shorter and so the defence must advance deeper in the field to make a viable delivery. Thus, the defence normally focuses on changing roles with the advance rather than attempt to score outright.
Chase
A chase occurs when the advancing team flings the ball into the air but receives it after two bounces; that it occurs is said to be laying down a chase. A chase is so named because the advance is likely to be chasing the ball desperately to save the point from being won by the defence outright. If the advance is unable to receive the ball after the third bounce, then the defence automatically wins a point. When a chase is laid down, the distance the ball was, when it bounced the second time, from the end of the field is recorded, and the identities of the sides are reversed; the advance is now on the defence, while the defence takes the advance. Playing of a chase is similar to but not the same as ordinary play.
Like other points, the chase point starts from the middle of the field, but the teams switch side. The defence is now the advance, and the advance is now the defence. However, the object of the game changes. The defence must now not only defend the hazard gallery behind them, but also the chase gallery field-south. Due to the change in the size and orientation of the objective, chase points have a rather different style of play. In playing the chase point, it is the objective of the defence to force the advance's ball to bounce twice closer to the middle of the field than the original second bounce that gave rise to the chase point.