Bedlam

Bedlam is an Ane game. The game is a sort of four legged rugby played at sixty kilometers an hour. 
* The field is between 2 kilometers and 5 kilometers long, and about a kilometer wide. Formal fields seldom exist and terrain factors will determine the size of the play area. 
* A spiky rubber ball easily held in the mouth is carried from goal to goal. (In pre-technical times a stick was the common playing piece.) 
* Rules are few. The game best resembles a running battle as the two sides (unmarked) tussle over the ball and try to run it off their end of the field. 
===Such Rules as Exist===
* Try to avoid hurting anyone, that sucks.
* No passing, even if you have hands.
* A goal is scored when the ball is run off the end of the agreed on pitch.
* The game lasts for the agreed on time, or til no one can run anymore, which ever comes first.
 
This toy from 1969, the Red Eye spike ball from Sun Rubber was discovered by the Ane. They spent a great deal of money and effort to locate and buy the original molds to make it for Bedlam. The original company had been sold and that company had gone out of business. Tracking down the molds was a fine piece of detective work. They were in the possession of the last company in the US to make the Hoppity Hop in the mid '90s, also originally a Sun Rubber product. 
A bit of experimentation proved that changes needed to be made to make the toy better suited for Bedlam. It is now made from a tougher grade of vinyl than the original and has a pebbled texture to make it easier to hold in ones mouth. It is now made by Wilson and sold as the "official" Bedlam ball. The balls are exported to El Nanth, Coventry, and other Ane worlds. The Earth versions have a card with the Bedlam "Official" rules included. Or you can play Calvin Ball with it. META: Yes Jay, it's the ball I had in mind for years. You can find anything on the Internet.
==Comment==
The game is mainly an excuse to run your fool head off. Goals are secondary to running and having fun. 
There is some interest in a Human Bedlam game. They were pointed at the Aneilog version of the game, which does look similar to Rugby played by smaller, faster people. There still is no passing as movement is the whole point of the game. Aneilogs use a much smaller pitch. Like the Ane the game is totally co-ed and nude*.
It has been noted by those that have watched the Ane play that it is remarkable there are so few injuries. 
Yes, someone from the United States wanted to organize teams form a league and televise the games. They got looked at funny. The whole project died a quick and unmourned death from an utter lack of interest on the part of the Ane. 
If anyone else wants to do this they have no problems as they do not feel they own a game that barely has a nod toward being organized.
Bicorn Services has patented the rules and trademarked the name mainly to keep some troll from stealing it. The idea is rigorously copylefted.
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* **An orgy after the Bedlam game? Sounds like fun but who has the energy left?**
Category:Ane
Category:Culture
Category:Intangibles