The Hundred cricket format got me thinking about how some subtle changes to sports could make them more interesting.

Here are my ideas


Cricket- play it in winter as well. The game doesn’t stop for any weather. If there is a foot of snow on the crease, you still have to play.

Horse racing- you cannot finish the race on the same horse you started on, meaning you have to swap horses with another rider mid course.

Golf- Speed golf match play. The winner of each hole is the player who finishes the quickest. This will involve cross country running

Football- play with two balls

A Spreadex bet helps!

I think they should have a Les Mans style start with horse racing, or has that been tried already?

Inchy wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:24 am

...some subtle changes to sports could make them more interesting.

Here are my ideas

The best idea I've heard recently was to play curling and figure skating/ice-dancing events concurrently. That's for the winter Olympics mind, so for the summer games perhaps combine hurdling and archery, or high diving and skeet shooting?

Make the Olympics national service. All nations are represented by the public drawn at random like jury duty. Big Kev the bin man- congratulations you are representing Team GB in the 4 x 100 relay.

A “normal” person involved in every Olympic event. It’s okay watching 10 people sprint 100m, but you don’t really sense how great they actually are. So instead we get Bob from the pub to run alongside them so we can see the contrast.

A wall like Ice Hockey in football. No corners, throw ins, goal kicks. Just play.

Horse racing. Make the jockeys carry the horses instead.

Formula 1. A tough mudder type event where there’s a small circuit for the drivers to navigate. When each driver gets to the end they can then get in whichever car they want.

Snooker? Played on an ice table where the balls will be replaced by mini curling type things.

Replacing static targets with paedophiles running for their lives in Archery would be quite popular

Bring in some proper sports like:
Finland, wife carrying mile.
Inouits, ear pulling.
England, wellie cobbing, gravy wrestling, shin kicking.

A few Formula 1 changes:
1. When the car comes into the pits to change tyres, the driver must change them himself. This includes having to fathom out how to put the wheel jack together.
2. Each driver is allowed to use one evil scheme in a race as long as it has been previously attempted by Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races.
3. When there is a safety car, one of the celebrities in the pits has to get in the car with Bernd Maylander to do a Safety Car Karaoke until the race is allowed to resume.

Dyched wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:47 am

Snooker? Played on an ice table where the balls will be replaced by mini curling type things.

I've played that one. Not on ice, but on smooth wood with wooden draughts. It was a table small enough to carry and play on a dining room table, but it's the same principle.

Dyched wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:47 am

A “normal” person involved in every Olympic event. It’s okay watching 10 people sprint 100m, but you don’t really sense how great they actually are. So instead we get Bob from the pub to run alongside them so we can see the contrast.

They tried this in 2000 with those two African swimmers who got wildcards and could barely swim. It went down very well and they became mini celebs Eddie the Eagle style

Return to Le Mans type starts for Formula One, running across the track to the cars ....
22 races, 22 cars, 22 drivers ...
Each Driver to drive each car once, so they drive a different car for each race ...
Each of the 22 drivers takes it in turn to be on pole, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc ...
Chuck out the Monaco Grand Prix and bring back fuel stops, and Grid girls and boys ..

Putting obstacles on a snooker table, like bunkers, lego brick walls, ramps and trap doors.

Don't they already play snooker with a shot clock, and to music as well?

Been saying for years they need to put more excitement into Formula 1
1, All cars are identical
2, All drivers have to run the first lap and then jump into any car
3, Water hazards at random parts of the track
4, Oil spots on track every now and then
5, Intermittent hosepipes directed at cars without warning

I do like the changing your own wheel suggestion as well.

A game where 22 people kick a ball around and is stopped every 5 seconds to draw some lines and spend 20 mins looking at them on a TV monitor...

...oh wait!

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:43 am

Return to Le Mans type starts for Formula One, running across the track to the cars ....
22 races, 22 cars, 22 drivers ...
Each Driver to drive each car once, so they drive a different car for each race ...
Each of the 22 drivers takes it in turn to be on pole, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc ...
Chuck out the Monaco Grand Prix and bring back fuel stops, and Grid girls and boys ..

Keep Monaco. But also keep the shops/restaurants open as well as traffic lights and regular traffic. All drivers must stop for 5 pints on the way round. Either altogether or 5 separate stops.

I’m reply to your cricket theory I take it you’ve never been to bacup? Everyday at Bacup is a winters day

A crowd member from each team to be drawn out from the crowd before the game and position they must play in football. or just put them in goal would be comical

Make football goal 6 inches wider and 3 inches higher.

I’ve never understood why cricket can’t be played in the rain. It’s also a non-contact sport so why can’t it be progressive and have women in the team too?

Why can’t tennis just have a simple scoring system?

In Snooker, the rule should be that the audience needs to be quiet but opposing players can make as much noise as they want and perform Psych-outs - if you’re familiar with the move BASEketball. It’ll make a good platform for comedians.

Dyched wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:47 am

A “normal” person involved in every Olympic event. It’s okay watching 10 people sprint 100m, but you don’t really sense how great they actually are. So instead we get Bob from the pub to run alongside them so we can see the contrast.

Something like that was done in the film Escape to Victory (mentioned on another thread) where you had actors trying to play football with real footballers.

Changes will be difficult. Someone here has tried and failed to change the rules of Beach volleyball:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/handball/57890430

Rowing - the opponents of each rower can set up some high powered jet hoses on the riverbanks along the course to hit the contestants.
Tennis - they only get one go at serving unless it's a let and the crowd can make as much noise as they like to try and block out the ridiculous noises some of the contestants make that presently make the thing unwatchable.
Ryder cup - anyone that shouts "get in the hole" gets tasered.
Olympics - any "sport" that needs a judge to give marks for looking pretty etc goes out to live gogglebox type audiences. And boxing is banned.
Swimming events. There's a wave machine

F1: Cars have to go in reverse.
Rugby: nobody over 12 stones allowed to play
Athletics relays: baton is a 10kg bar of metal.
Swimming: predatory fish randomly idling in the pool
Wrestling: competitors all greased up before the bout
Cricket: bowlers allowed (once per over max) to bowl down an orange in stead of a Duke.
Pole Vault: landing area has to be just an old mattress.
Darts; players have to drink a half pint (ale/lager/stout) between each single game (leg).
Horse racing: In the parade ring, the jockeys have to fight for which horse they get to ride.

Javelin: Mixed doubles, 1 throwing 1 catching.

Genuine one, none of that hugging nonsense in boxing.

When I 1st read the OP ... I had to check the name as I thought for a couple of seconds it was a Pstotto post

bartonscigar wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:12 pm

A crowd member from each team to be drawn out from the crowd before the game and position they must play in football. or just put them in goal would be comical

You mean like on women's football?

... or this:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... n-west-ham

Spin the board at darts.

Sin bin at footy instead of yellow card. Cumulative penalties to continue to apply.

Tour de France on unicycles.

LeadBelly wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:07 am

...Rugby: nobody over 12 stones allowed to play

Darts; players have to drink a half pint (ale/lager/stout) between each single game (leg).

In New Zealand they have a <70kg Rugby union Tournament/League

As to the darts idea, when visiting friends in Australia I've played '6-pack golf' on several occasions which follows similar principals:
All players must have at least six stubby (375ml) cans/bottles of full strength beers in their bag at the first tee and will be penalised three shots for each one that's not completely empty before you commence putting on the eighteenth green. For each additional beer over and above those six that you consume before the eighteenth green, your score's reduced by three shots for the first six and five shots per beer thereafter; re-stocking with additional (cold) beers at the ninth hole is allowed, but all the original six must be consumed before they can be included in the count. Whinging invariably arises from the locals due to the perceived advantage of being British and so able to drink warmer ale; choose a 'dark' beer (Toohey and Cooper do good ones) and you can steadily chug one every couple of holes without serious damage to your game (mine's nowt flash to begin with), whereas the locals are trying to drink their first six over the first three or four holes, before it gets too-warm and is deemed 'undrinkable'.

Funkydrummer wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:34 pm

Sin bin at footy instead of yellow card. Cumulative penalties to continue to apply.

I would love to see that in football, it's been a great improvement to Rugby Union; though given the way in which I often played, I perhaps wouldn't have been in favour back then.

Man City should be made to play off a 0-6 handicap when they play us

Alongside the Olympics and Paralympics - I’d love there to be another where there are no doping laws whatsoever.

Olympic/world record is 9 seconds …..

Some bloke has absolutely filled his body with every chemical known to man that makes him fast and does the 100m in 4 seconds. It’d be great to watch I think.

Trampoline darts. Dartboard is placed 20ft high and the darters have a trampoline on the oche.