Lapta (game)

Lapta ( _ru. лапта) is a Russian ball game, similar to Brännboll, Rounders, baseball, and pesäpallo . It has been played in Russia since 14th century [ [http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=11394 Article about the sport] ] .

Lapta rules

Lapta - Old Russian folk team game with the ball and a bat. Mentions of Lapta were found in the old scripts and balls and bats were found in the 14th century layers during excavations in Novgorod. The game was played outside on a field the size of 20 by 25 sazhens (about 140 by 175 feet). The edges of the field are marked with parallel lines, these lines were called "salo". The goal of the game - hit the ball, served by a player of the opposite team, with the bat, and to send a ball as far as possible afield, and then to run over the field to "kon" line and if possible to run back to "gorod" line.

Running player should try to avoid being hit with the ball, thrown by opposing team members. For successful runs team earns points. Wins a team, that gets more points for the scheduled time, or if all players complete the run.

Games similar to Lapta include baseball, cricket, Pesapolo in Finland, Oyna in Romania and others. Vivid description of Russian Lapta with the bats given by Aleksandr_Kuprin:

This folks game - one of the most interesting and useful games. Lapta requires resourcefulness, deep breathing, faithfulness to your party , attention, dexterity, fast running, good aiming and marksmanship, strong striking hands and hard eternal confidence that you do not be defeated. Lazy and cowards have no place in this game.

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Notations

* [http://semanticcompositions.typepad.com/index/2004/07/how_the_russian.html|How the Russians invented baseball]