10 Ludicrous Sports You've Probably Never Heard Of

The Eton Wall Game is often described as ‘rugby gone wrong’. Invented over 250 years ago and only played at Eton College, the most prestigious and exclusive (read: expensive and upper class) public boarding school in England, the objective is to move a medium-sized round leather ball along a curved wall on school property, away from your own goal and towards your opponent’s goal.

Leverage and momentum is key. The ‘scrum’ is actually the focus of the game, not a formalised interruption of play. Physical violence is banned, as is yanking on clothing; however, pushing and shoving is part of play, as is the placing of the fist against an opposing players face to gain leverage to shove them away from the wall.

Once the game starts, the ball is rarely seen again. Astonishingly, although points have been scored within the arcane rule system of the game, a goal has not been scored in any Eton Wall Game for over 108 years.

Play takes place between Collegians and Oppidans, literally ‘town dwellers’. That’s a select group of pupils who board on the school’s grounds, versus a far more numerous pool of boys who board in lodgings in the town itself. Given the class-based rivalry this presents, the Eton Wall Game can be seen as a microcosm of British society.

With baffling, centuries old rules, played for bragging rights between the rich children of the upper class and nobility, and the practical impossibility of ever truly scoring, the Eton Wall Game has to be the most ludicrous sport ever invented.