Australian gateballers may remember John Swabey who played at the 2017 Australian Gateball Championships with the “Internationals” team. John was visiting us from Germany and is one of the movers and shakers in the European Gateball League. John kindly sent us the following article. His rules summary is certainly recommended for new players.
Complex or what?
Across Europe in the Gateball League, we don’t have many players competent as yet to rule even on relatively simple issues such as when a ball is out.
The 2015 WGU rules of Gateball run to 42 pages, plus another 27 pages of “terminology”. In addition, there are 60 pages of “Guide for Referees”, much of which it is also important for the player to be aware of.
On top of all that, the WGU found it important to publish a 207 page Q&A booklet, sub-titled “The rules made clear” (sic). Such a convenient reference document!
What we needed, I decided, is a summary (yet another, you may say?) of practical answers to the frequently occurring situations, in an easily accessible, weather-proof format. Hey presto: my summary in just 18 laminated A5 pages, including diagrams, set in a font size (Arial 12) that even my aged eyes can easily manage to read at a glance.
I started with a German language version for the 4 clubs across Germany, but also distributed the summary in English across the additional 5+ clubs in the rest of the Gateball League (in Belgium, France and Switzerland) and to an Italian club and to the UK national centre in Ripon. The pagination is the same, for ease of discussion when different cultures clash on court.
Reference is also made to the WGU rule in question, to facilitate use of these practical answers for setting our first ever exams for would-be referees in Europe, planned for later this year. Any Australian referees travelling to Europe before October would be welcome to adjudicate exams and of course any player is welcome to sign up for one or more of our tournaments (see below).
John Swabey
http://johnswabey.wixsite.com/gateball-league/2018-tournaments
Well done. Easy to understand. Enjoy your Gateball.
An excellent document, well thought out, the layout makes it easy to follow.
However, there are some minor errors, and some suggested changes and several rule references are incorrect. As it is not in an editable format, therefore i’m unable to correct.
If John Swabey is prepared to provide me with an editable document I can make the required changes in red font and forward back to him. In its current format, as an International Referee in Australia I do not recommend that it be available for use in Australia.
Thanks Bruce – have contacted John and will correct