Rules of bike ball

These bike ball rules are governed by the Minneapolis and St-Paul bike ball team (Minnesota, U.S.A.):

Equipment:

One bike (on which you are prepared to have bent wheels and occasional other broken parts) and one official "Wiffle Ball" Bat per person. The ball is a lightweight kids plastic/rubber ball and is inflated to about 5" in diameter. The present official ball is a Hedstrom Corporation 4" Playball, available at stores such as Target and Wal-Mart and distinguished by a picture of Barbie on the ball. Two pairs of standard traffic cones are used to delineate goals and are placed at either end of a soccer field or equivalent at a spacing of about one and a half bike lengths.

 Play and Scoring:

An ideal number of players per team is four although games with 3 on 3 and 5 on 5 can also be very good and games with as few as 2 on 2 or as many as 8 on 8 are possible. One point is awarded for sending the ball between the cones at any height. Typically, no score is kept during the majority of a game, but a final "game to 3" points commences near the end the game to finish off play for the day.

Rules:

1. Players must not have a foot on the ground when striking the ball with the bat.

2. If the ball is passed backwards though the goal by the offensive team, the defense has the next touch.

3. Play the ball, not the bike. This rule is open to some interpretation and generally means that players must not deliberately smash into another player or forcibly ride them out of the play. Basically, use a little common sense!

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