Cricket. Gotta love cricket.
Cricket is a game where two men (or women, but generally men) stand at either ends of a turf "pitch" with logs of wood cut, sanded and polished to make bats. The idea is for the men to hit a red hard ball towards the edge of the oval they are playing on before eleven other men stop the aforementioned ball. The two men also have to stop the ball hitting the stumps, or three long wooden pegs with little lumps of wood, bails, balanced quite delicately on top of them.
But cricket doesn't stop there.
I have been taught to play several types of cricket. My favourite is Backyard Cricket... where generally people make up their own rules. But, like Monopoly, there are a lot of rules that people use internationally. Like people deciding whether to put tax money on Free Parking, we in Backyard Cricket decide whether to put the "one-hand, one-bounce" rule into play (that is, if the ball bounces once on the ground, you may try to catch it with one hand).
Another is a game I take pride in inventing, and a game which until now, only my mate knew how to play as well as me. Instead of a bat, we use a tennis racket. Instead of the batsman standing between the stumps, he stands outside them. Instead of running, when the batsman hits the ball, they are given points depending on how close the ball was to the trampoline when it stopped (or when it was fielded).
But truly my favourite is Car Cricket, for long, boring trips on the freeway. It's very simple to play, as long as you know the scoring system in regular cricket. For each vehicle that passes you (passes, not overtakes) you score a certain amount of runs: 1 point for a bicycle or motorbicycle; 2 points for a car (except if the car is red or white, in which case you lose a wicket); 3 points for a car with a trailer, 4WD, ute or van (any colour); 4 points for a 4WD with a trailer, ute with a trailer or van with a trailer; 5 points for a truck; and 6 points for a B-double or truck with a trailer. Heaps of fun.
Hope I enticed you to try a couple of those games.