Shoe cricket

Shoe Cricket is a recreational sport played mainly in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Its rules are similar to that of cricket, however a shoe is used instead of a bat, and a tennis ball is used in place of the traditional leather cricket ball. The reason for the titular shoe being used in place of the bat is most likely that cricket bats were sometimes difficult to acquire during a lunch time and pupils resorted to utilising their shoes in place of the more orthodox bat. The shoes continued to be used because of the small size of the playing area meaning that any normal cricket bat used would overly sway the game the way of the batsman. The sport is popular as a lunch time activity at many Dunedin schools especially John Mcglashan College.

Rules
The nature of shoe cricket as an informal pick up style game means that the rules will invariably change depending on such factors as number of players and amount of time available for the game, and where the game is being played. The rules are based upon those of Cricket.
* The pitch on which shoe cricket is played is usually an area not specifically designed for sport, but rather a school courtyard or in some cases outside a classroom.
*Each team can consist of no more than five players. They take turns to bowl two four ball overs each.
*One player must be wicket keeper, who usually sits on a platform such as a wall directly behind the batsman.
*There is only one batsman playing at any one time.
*There are no lbw's in Shoe Cricket.
*Each game is meant to consist of three innings each, with all players each bowling two non consecutive overs. However many games last only a single innings due to time constraints.
*The only methods of scoring are to hit a 6, meaning to hit the ball on the full out of the designated boundaries, or to hit a 4, meaning the ball bounces before going over the boundary.
*Wides are defined as being balls pitched no less than 0.8 metres to the left or right of the batsman. These give the batting team an additional one run and the ball is re-bowled.
*The wickets are usually objects that resemble cricket wickets in height and width, often drinking fountains or the school bags of pupils.
*The ball used must be a standard tennis ball
*The bat used must be a shoe with a rubber sole. There has been some controversy over the use of steel capped shoes.

Competitions
There have as yet been no official Shoe Cricket competitions, although the game is played most lunchtimes as an intra school competition between teams that vary according to who is present. There has been some discussion as to whether a Dunedin or Otago wide competition should take place, although were this to occur the rules and playing area would require standardisation

See Also

Dunedin

John Mcglashan College

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