Lawn Sports Quiz
Which of the following backyard sports is an official event at the Olympic Summer Games?
- Badminton has been an official Olympic sport since 1992.
What sport are you playing if immediately after the opening pull you've got a marker barking out the stall count in your face and six teammates waiting for a pass?
- The "opening pull" is the game's equivalent to the kickoff in football. A "marker" is a defender and the "stall count" is the 10-second reprieve one has to complete a pass to a teammate.
Once known as battledore and shuttlecock, this backyard sport dates back to Ancient Greece, China, and India. However, once it became popular in England it borrowed its current name from somebody's house. What is it?
- Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort's residence in Gloucestershire, England, is where a new version of this ancient game emerged during the 1850s.
Which of the following United States' lawn sport organizations was founded first?
- National Horseshoe Pitchers Association was organized in Kansas City, Mo., in 1914; USA Volleyball in 1928; United States Croquet Association in 1977.
In horseshoe pitching, if you've just thrown a hobber where is your horseshoe likely to be?
- Also called a "leaner," it is worth two points in a game of horseshoe pitching.
David Mullany got the inspiration for this backyard toy while watching his son play stickball with a broomstick handle and plastic golf ball in the backyard of their Fairfield, Conn., home.
- A former semi-pro pitcher, Mullany tested out several different hole patters before settling on the familiar eight-oblong-hole pattern. The first plastic Wiffle balls were produced and sold in 1953.
Hoping to cash in on the country's UFO hysteria of the 1950s, the inventor of the first plastic Frisbee marketed his new invention under what name?
- In 1955, Walter Fredrick Morrison sold the rights to his invention to Wham-O, the toy company already marketing the Super Ball and the Hula-Hoop.
The wire arches used in croquet are called what?
- In some countries they are called hoops. Games are played with either six or nine of them, and a player earns points by hitting their ball through them.
Quoits is another form of what popular backyard sport?
- In quoits a ring is thrown at a vertical stake. At sea, the game of deck quoits is played with rings made of rope.
Which of the following countries banned the sale of lawn darts in 1988?
- The darts, which were typically about 12 inches long with a heavy metal or weighted plastic tip, caused thousands of injuries and three deaths in the U.S. In addition to the ban, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged people who already owned the darts to destroy them.
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