Jukskei
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Jukskei is a 200 year old folk sport (Afrikaans: Boeresport) developed and played in South Africa.
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[edit] History
Jukskei is believed to originate around 1743 in the Cape, South Africa.[1] by "transport riders" who traveled with ox-drawn wagons[2]. They used the wooden pins of the yokes (Afrikaans: Skei) of the oxen to throw at a stick that was planted into the ground. The game was also played during the Great Trek[3]. It was also played by the farmers from the Boland on beaches. Jukskei became an organized sport around 1939 when the first unions where established and rules where formalized.[4]
[edit] Today
The sport is traditionally associated with the Afrikaners and in 2001 it was chosen by the SA government one of the sports to be included in the Indigenous Games Project. This project identified jukskei as one of seven indigenous games that should be encouraged and developed[5]. Since then the game has started to gain popularity with young people of all cultures[6] Jukskei is played at club and provincial level, and there is an annual tournament in Kroonstad in the Free State [7].
[edit] Basic Rules
The object of the game is to knock over a peg that is planted in a sandpit over a distance of between 11 and 16 m (depending on age and gender). It is played in teams with usually four members each. Each member has two skeis (and thus two turns). The playing field consists of two pits juxtaposed in opposite directions, so that play can take place in both directions. Each time a team member knocks over the peg, he gets three points. If the peg wasn’t knocked out, the team lying closest to the position of the peg, scores as many points as they have skeis closer to the peg than their opponent's closest skei. The first team to get exactly 23 points first wins the game. If the team gets more than 23 points, they start from 0. [8].
