So there I was, winging my way across the country in a giant airplane seated next to an eight year old that talked non-stop for nine hours. I had a backpack full of stuff to do. My iPad with a million apps including Kindle and iBooks. I had my actual Kindle as well. There was my lap top just in case. My iPod was in the front pocket for easy access. So there was no reason in the world why I picked up the stupid in flight magazine to read.

But, I did. **shrug** Sometimes there is fun stuff in there.

I did a massive clean up of my desk this weekend and found this article from that magazine. I remember at the time thinking, “Ooooh, that could be interesting.”

The article talked about “off-the-radar sports. Basically, what happens is you take to incongruous “sport” and pair them together. For example, chess and boxing. No, I’m not making this up and apparently neither is Lloyd Bradley. He wrote a whole book about this idea called The Rough Guide to Cult Sport.

I know you won’t believe this but there is actually a federation, The World Chess Boxing Organisation. You’d think it was based in Great Britan because of the spelling, but they’re not. They do have a branch in England as well as India and Siberia (!) but the WCBO is actually in Berlin. I’d have bet there was one in Austrialia but I couldn’t find a listing. It just seems like something those crazy-fun Aussies would come up with.

It goes like this – alternating rounds of boxing then chess then boxing then chess and so on until someone wins one or the other. I’d imagine by round six or so, things on that chess board could get pretty bloody. They have very high standards for who they’ll admit into the Organisation. The boxers must have a chess ELO rating of nearly 2,000. I have no idea what that is or how it ranks in the world of chess, but knowing my abilities, I’d score around a 4. I’m not even sure what all the pieces are called. I was once yelled at by an uncle for calling the rooks “castles”. God forbid!

Apparently, in the world of cult sports, there is also swimming+hockey called octopush and blowling+golf called road

Traditional Curling Equipment

bowling.  I guess you just throw the bowling ball down the road and count how many times it takes you to get like a mile or something. I suspect drinking is involved and, if it isn’t, it sure as hell should be.

Quill Sisters Curling Equipment

So this made me ponder the Sisters. We are not sporty types. I enjoy hockey – a lot. Ava tolerates it. Kelli thinks I’m deranged. However, none of us actually wishes to participate in anything…sweaty.  In the spirit of the idea of smooshing together two disparite activities the Sister’s could excell at I thought of shopping+curling.  The players go to the nearest mall and purchase shoes from Manolo Blahnik. 

 Instead of the traditional curling “stones” the shoes are substituted.  The person who scores, gets to keep the shoes.  Woohoo! That’s the sport for us.