Does anyone know the official rules of this game? Wait – there are official rules?
To refresh the memory of anyone who anyone who needs it (mine definitely does), the basics of handball are supposed to be as follows:
Number of players: minimum of two, maximum of four
The player in the leading square serves the ball, which must bounce once in their own square before being served into an opponent’s square. That person then bounces it on to another player’s square, and so on.
Each time you hit the ball to another player, you’re aiming for it to bounce once in your square first and then serve it on into the other player’s square. If you do any part of your serving or receiving wrong – you’re OUT.
The OUTs
Various rules govern outs, such as landing the ball outside the court or allowing it to bounce twice in your square.
Any interference in another person’s square can get you an out too, or get you sent down to a lower level square.
Certain types of serves may also get you an out, like a lob or a double bounce.
That said, I recall vast variations in this game, depending on where and with whom I played. It seems a lot like the card game Uno – you know (x2), everyone kind of knows there are rules, but no-one follows any real set of standard ones. For example:
At-school rules
These were always four player games. We had the four squares; King, Queen, Jack and Dunce (a sort of joker).
Missing a bounce got you sent to a lower square, provided the shot wasn’t a ‘grubber’ (too deliberately low to reach). If you were already the dunce and you missed your bounce, you were out.
We had other rules too: ownward slams with force caused nosebleeds. Not illegal, but not well-received by teachers and/or caretakers at my local primary school. We also had a height-of-bounce rule, due to nearby gum trees.
Anytime the ball went into the trees, the lowest ranking player had to fetch it. If your serve hit any living bird or animal (my school hosted magpies, lizards, and occasional possums – plus, our caretaker had a dog), you were immediately disqualified and had to sit out for the rest of the game.
Hitting the caretaker’s dog was especially egregious. His name was Bambi, a retired greyhound and a great favourite with most of us kids. Get the ball too close to Bambi – even accidentally – and you’d likely not find anyone to play you on the court again until the following term. This was more challenging than it sounds because Bambi was a dog and we were playing with a ball.
Many school handball games were ‘Bambi-ed’ and no-one minded at all. Handball rules were entirely different at home.
At-home rules
My mum only had three kids, so if no neighbours were handy, we had to either play in a pair, or one person played both Jack and Joker. A feat of dexterity and speed of which I’m still proud.
We had a last-touch rule too – so if the ball ‘went’ somewhere wrong (outside the squares, through a window, hit a parked car, etc), the person who last touched it was deemed out.
At home, our small concrete patio was the only place a ball would bounce in our yard, so there were no tree-based rules. In fact, we had few rules other than the basics above, and no-one stopped us attempting to slam-bounce the ball into a sibling either … those games never lasted long, and the bloody noses became standard until we reached our teens.
(Not having a swollen nose matters more when you’ve got the school formal on your mind.)
The final say
I’ve only recently realised that our handball games are uniquely Australian.
Turns out, it’s not played much in other countries. That said, I’m pretty sure that wherever there are kids, a spherical object that bounces, and a hard enough bit of ground, you’ll find a version of this game – and one or two nosebleeds to match.
(That part’s essential.)
What do you reckon? Did you play handball, or downball? Why not share your experience in the comments section below?
Also read: Remember when the playground could kill you?
