French Cricket

French Cricket

French Cricket is a very popular game with older children and teenagers, but it is fun in a family gathering too. You need at least 6 players for a good game, and a fairly large space to play.

You will need:

A cricket bat or tennis racket
A tennis ball

How to play:

The players stand in a circle, and somebody is chosen to bat first. He stands with his feet together, defending the "stumps", which are his legs below the knees. The players in the circle bowl at the stumps and he must hit the ball away. If he hits the ball, and only if he hits the ball, he can move his feet and turn around to face in another direction. If he doesn't hit the ball, he must twist and turn to try to defend the stumps without moving his feet. He can also be "caught out", if he hits the ball and one of the players in the circle catches it before it bounces. You can get yourself into quite a pickle if you are trying to defend your stumps against a player who is bowling at you from behind!

When he is "out", he is usually replaced by the player who bowled him or caught him out. If the game is very unequal, you might step in and make sure that everybody takes it in turns to bat instead.

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