An ancient sport

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 2nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A sport straight out of the pages of history.

It’s called fistball. It’s been around since 240 BC and yes, there are fistball leagues and professional teams and international competitions.

REICHARD: It’s big in Europe. Not so much in Australia. In fact, no one there had played it professionally until two friends decided they would be the first. Here’s WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis with their story.

AUDIO: [Australia sets Olympic record in 4x100 relay]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: The story goes that in 2012, two Aussie guys got it in their heads that they wanted to go to the Olympics. One of them was Malcolm Donnellon.

DONNELLON: And we were talking, you know, about how great it would be to play for Australia, you know, to represent your country. But you know, most of us realize, at some point, that you’re probably not going to be able to do that, because only the, you know, top few percent of people get the opportunity to do that.

Donnellon loved playing sports more than training for them. His mate Rolf Peterson was the same. But that didn’t stop him from trying to pursue his dream.

DONNELLON: And Rolf was like, well, actually, I’ve got a bit of an idea about that. I think I found a loophole.

Peterson found an obscure sport.

DONNELLON: It’s big in Germany and Austria and Switzerland and some parts of South America. It’s called fistball…

Fistball is an old sport. The first guy to mention it was Roman Emperor Gordian the Third—240 years before Christ. The Italians finally wrote down the rules in 1555.

AUDIO: [Japan/NZ Game]

One South African fistballer described it as volleyball on steroids. From the front of a court, one team member serves a stiff leather ball over a skinny 2-inch wide red and white striped net. The other team gets three hits to return the ball. But the ball can bounce once between each hit.

Regardless of who serves, every error gets a point—like if a player or ball hits the net or a team doesn’t get the ball back to the other side. It’s played on a court six times bigger than a volleyball court.

Oh, and players can only use one fist to hit the ball.

AUDIO: [Hitting the ball, cheers]

The game sounded fun enough. Then Malcolm Donnellon’s friend told him there were tournaments all over the world.

DONNELLON: And as far as we can see, no one in Australia has ever played it before. So I think if we started it ourselves, we could be the Australian team.

They needed five on each team. So they invited a bunch of their friends to join them.

DONNELLON: …And so, all right, well, cool. Let’s try and get this together and actually have a try at this game and see if it’s any good because, like, maybe it’s just a really bad game. And there’s a good reason why it’s not played in many countries.

They used a volleyball as a fistball and a rope strung between some tent poles for a net. They made a YouTube video and a professional fistballer from Switzerland saw it.

Roger Willen is now the Development Director for new fistball teams. He was appalled at what he saw.

WILLEN: They are just hitting the ball a little bit. And fistball is quite different. So I sent them also some links to better videos about fistball.

And he mailed them a huge box of official fistball equipment.

It turns out, Donnellon’s mate Rolf Peterson was right. Being the first team of an obscure sport opened doors to represent their country. Just a year after organizing, the newly formed Australian fistball team flew to Pakistan to play in the Men’s Asian Fistball Championships. Fistball is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is part of the World Games.

DONNELON: …which is sort of the poor man's Olympics. And we’re sort of still continuing to try and build towards potentially being in the Olympics one day, but I think it’s probably still a little way off yet.

In the meantime, on October 22nd and 23rd, they hosted the Pacific Fistball Championships with Japan and New Zealand after years of pandemic disruptions.

The week leading up to the championships, they got sunny spring weather. But then, starting at 8:34 Friday night…

AUDIO: [Rain, thunder]

…a massive thunderstorm dumped 46 millimeters of rain—or 2 inches—on the baseball outfield where they set up their courts. Teams from the neighboring island nations of New Zealand and Japan had already arrived in-country, ready to challenge the Australian teams. If they got to play.

The morning of the championship, the Australians tested their teamwork on the courts in new ways.

AUDIO: [Tractor receding]

One team member drove over the soggy grass with an in-field groomer loaded with sandbags. He tried to coax the deep puddles to the outer edges of the courts.

Barefoot team members labored shoulder to shoulder squeegeeing water from the outfield with push-brooms.

AUDIO: [Squeegeeing]

The games started two hours late.

AUDIO: [Tractor turning off]

The balls actually bounced now instead of falling flat in puddles.

AUDIO: [Sideline cheering and from children]

The mud didn’t deter anyone. Fistballers love the sport. Here’s Waichiro from Japan:

WAICHIRO: I want many people to love fistball.

Jesse Kempf from New Zealand echoes the sentiment.

JESSE KEMPF: I don't think people, many people know the game and watching it. It's quite a dynamic, exciting game.

Dhara Modhwadia used to play volleyball and now plays fistball for Australia.

DHARA MODHWADIA: I wish people just knew more about it. Because when I joined I did not know anything about it. And it’s, it's a fun sport.

Roger Willen from Switzerland wants people to know…

WILLEN: It’s a very, very fun game. And you can play it from seven to 77. And you can play it indoor, you can play it outdoor, you can play it everywhere. You need just the ball and some people. That's all. It’s a very easy game and very fun game.

AUDIO: That’ll do it. New Zealand are the champions to the Master’s Pacific Fistball Championships. Congratulations.

In the end, Australia and Japan fell to the Kiwis. New Zealand’s men’s, women’s, and masters’ teams took the Championship trophies back across the Tasman Sea.

Donnellon says his teams are already planning strategies to get the trophies back. Fist on!

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Geelong, Australia.

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