photo courtesy of circlerulesfederation.com

There’s some smack talk going around on the Team Saucony blog, specifically in New York. Tomorrow night is the NYC Championship Game in which the bronzed Saucony Original trophy is up for grabs. The trophy along with unlimited bragging rights will not come easy to either of this summer’s finalists. Thrillist (witty, sometimes snarky daily newsletter with product, restaurant and culture finds) is facing off against L’Oreal (yep, the make up company, I was hipped to an upcoming release of a vibrating mascara at the last game).
The teams will throw down in the increasingly popular sport of Circle Rules Football. This game was dreamt up by theater major Greg Manley whose love of sports, game design and competitiveness landed him a multitude of medals & awards at this summer’s Come Out and Play Festival in NYC.
The game, which we’ll play in Central Park Tues Sept 1 @ 7pm, is played in a circular field with the goal in the middle. Goal keepers are stationed back to back on each side of the PCP goal and I should mention, they are allowed full contact with each other, even above the neck is allowed!
While I’ll be cringing & running away from confrontation we’re honored that Greg will be with us to officially ref the game. It’s gonna be awesome!

I have to say I was nervous about this game- Large plastic bats + super competitive players = a very nervous Nicole. After making sure all players signed a waiver we got started just as the sun was starting to disappear for the evening. In case you don’t know the deal, the object of field crumpets is to take a cartoon laden bouncy ball & hit it thru a gaurded space with a big, red plastic bat. No hands.

All the teams did great and no one got hit in the head! There were plenty of flying bats & shoes though. Field crumpets sealed the fate of which teams are one step closer to the bronzed shoe in NYC- L’Oreal vs. Thrillist! Congrats to Matador who snatched up a big W so they wouldn’t end the season winless. And a big thank you to all of our teams at the end of regulation game time- We had so much fun & EVERYONE is invited to the championship game to root for the team of your choice… or just heckle everyone.

Well it was another exciting week of office games in the Big Apple, with a much anticipated double header of Kubb. It was a clear day but the rain that New York has been experiencing acted as a steroid for the grass. The support of the long blades against the Kubbs made the average stick toss meaningless. Gamers had to strike with Annie Oakley like accuracy, making every hit just that more exhilarating.

Team L’Oreal’s early arrival and extra warm up time proved worthwhile against Thrillist in a quick game that ended with a King strike two feet away, behind an ill placed field Kubb. On the other end of the playing field, on court 2, team Sony had the intimidation factor as they showed up with a full force of “A” gamers. Flavorpill had the heart and the team spirit, but just couldn’t come up with a win against such a dominating force.

With night fast approaching the teams had to call it a “one and done” instead of best of three. The teams were obviously still in a competitive mood when they showed up at the new establishment, Dublin Bar, for multiple rounds of flip cup. With all four teams together at once the Dublin Bar was full of an energy that it hasn’t seen for years and as for the teams, the wins and the losses of the day were momentarily forgotten.

The Saucony O’s summer office sports league is in full swing, and we have a game lineup next week that’s gonna knock your socks right out of your Jazz Lo-Pros.

Monday August 3rd & Tuesday August 4th - NYC teams plays Kubb in Central Park.

Tuesday August 4th - Chicago teams play wiffle ball in Humboldt Park and our Boston teams play steal the bacon at Boston Common (pray for no rain this time!)

Wednesday August 5th - Seattle teams play touch football under the Space Needle while our SF teams play field crumpets at Draves Field.

Now what the eff is field crumpets, you ask? Field Crumpets is a game played with two teams of players which try to score points by hitting the “crumpet” (generally one of those squishy playground balls) into the opposing team’s goal using their crumpet sticks (big fat wiffle bats). Field Crumpets is highly related to the games Field Hockey and Soccer, though it references several other sports. The game also includes various unique rules, many of which reflect the founders’ desire to emphasize fun and silliness over competition.

We look forward to the silliness!

Field Crumpets photo courtesy of fieldcrumpets.com

It’s Game 2 for the office teams and the heat is on, literally, with a high of 80 degrees what a beautiful day to play outside! Tonight Thrillist will face off against Matador and Sony vs. L’Oreal. After Thrillist and L’Oreal’s won last Monday, Sony and Matador need to make sure that their Ladder Golf skills are up to par in order to beat these barely undefeated teams. Tomorrow we welcome our new office team, Flavorpill who will play Heeb, also in a rousing game of Ladder Golf.

If you are unfamiliar with Ladder Golf, it’s a fun and exciting tossing game, much like horse shoe except here the object of the game is to toss a bola (or thick string with a ball on each end) over a rung of a ladder. The game is played in rounds and each round consists of all players tossing 3 bolas. Points are determined by which ladder your bolas are on. The game is played to exactly 21 points. You can find the complete set of rules here.

We’re looking forward to tonight!