by Simon Coates
Other Sports : Targetball, Football, Hoverball
Targetball
When humans began to live on the Moon, they started to develop their own unique ways of living, and one of those ways was to invent new sports and games, the most popular being a sport called targetball. A fundamentally simple game, it involves hitting a ball at varying distances against a target, with a point gained for a “hit” and no points gained for a “miss”. The challenge comes in being able to judge the aim and flight of a ball in a low-gravity situation, hence why it is very popular on the Moon.
After low-key beginnings, the pastime became more and more popular, and over time local populations began to organise competitions, until the game was played over the whole Moon. A formal championship, known as the ‘open’ championship was inaugurated in 2240, which was won by local player Jad’ghism. From that initial competition, the open is held yearly as the centrepiece tournament of the sport.
Over the history of the sport, certain players have become very famous, none more so than Tyke Olbrim, who was open champion every year from 2281 to 2293. Moonions dominate the sport; in the history of the open, only one non-Moonion has triumphed, when Earth-born Hans Smith took the title in 2294.
The open championship features a qualification round where a large number of competitors compete, with the top seven players going through to the final, joined by the reigning champion from the previous year who gains automatic entry. In the final, each player will shoot the ball against 10 targets of varying distances over ten rounds, so will hit a total of 100 shots. The championship winner usually scores 85 points or more; the record was set in 2285 when Tyke Olbrim scored 95 points, the closest anyone has ever got to scoring a perfect 100 points.
Football
With a history stretching back to the late-19th century, football is one of the longest running sporting games in history, and is still very popular in the 23rd century on Earth. In the latter half of the 20th century, the game developed into a big-money sport, especially in the European areas of the Earth, as well as being popular in certain South American countries. Local competitions between teams from different areas of the Earth competed in national and international tournaments, as well as national teams competing in world championships, the ‘World Cup’, which became one of the biggest sporting competitions of all.
Still very popular today, but only really played in any big way in Europe on Earth, the main competition now is the European League, where teams based in the big cities of Europe on Earth compete by playing matches against each other, with the champion gaining the most points over a season.
Hoverball
A close relation to football is hoverball, which is a game played in zero gravity, so it is popular on the Moon. The rules are similar to football, in so much that the game is played with two teams opposing each other, with the objective to score a goal by putting the ball into the opposing team’s goal area. Even the match time is the same, with two halves of 45 minutes. However, the team size is smaller, with a hoverball team being made up of six players, rather than eleven in a football team. Also, another main difference is that players can hit the ball with any part of their body, so can hit the ball with their hands, rather than in football, where the goalkeeper is the only player who can do so.
The main competition for hoverball is the Galactic Championship. There are two leagues, the Mars and the Moon championships, where each team plays each other and gains points for a win or a draw. The Mars Championship has seven teams, the Moon Championship has eight. The winner from their respective leagues play each other in the Galactic Championship final.