I caught a programme about croquet today. I spotted that one of the people on the past champions plaque was a Capt J Kirk. Obviously the stories on Star Trek about time travel were right.
But the story behind the development of the game and the introduction of the rules interested me. Apparently the early game had virtually no rules, and it was pretty much just an excuse for young ladies and gents to get together. Now there are rulers and it is highly competitive.
It reminded me of one New Year when I was young. The snow was about a foot deep and we were out visiting people after midnight (four or five young people). There was some waste ground (behind the wee shop) and we had a couple of balloons. So we played football with the balloons. There were no goals- it was just kicking balloons around. It was much more fun than any of the times I actually played football to the rules.
Now we have VAR in football to make sure the rules are followed to the nearest mm.
Do rules take a lot of the fun out of sports?