Wood Tennis: An Introduction

When we moved into our place in late October of last year, I managed to wrangle my old man's table tennis table out of his garage without him really knowing and take it to our place to set it up in a big arse shed we have out the back. This shed is 9m x 6m which we have dubbed "The Woodshed". Consequently our house took on this nickname too, but that's another story all together.

Wood Tennis is essentially the game of table tennis, but has an extra sub-set of rules that's ever-growing by the day it seems, used to turn the comparably drab game of table tennis into a thrilling, on-the-edge-of-your-seat drinking game :)

Adrian and I first invented the game one night while I think Justin was at Greater Union... so he came home and experienced just how drunk we had gotten in such short a time, and was naturally enthralled as to how this was possible.

So... I present, over the next week, the definitive guide to Wood Tennis.

1. Setup
   
   
   
   1. 4 empty cans of "Giant 440mL" woodstock must be placed at specific points on the table, as shown below:
      

      
      
      

   2. A cardboard box at least half a foot deep must be in place at some point within "bouncing" distance around the table.
   
   
   
   


2. Basic Gameplay
   (Assumes the basic rules of table tennis apply, with the following extensions)
   
   
   
   1. Before the game starts, a single point will be played to decide who serves first. The ball must pass over the net three times for the point to be valid. This is known as a "3 over".
   
   
   2. The winner of the 3 over starts serving. He has 5 consecutive serves before the serve rotates to the other player. He then has 5 consecutive serves. Service rotates like this for the duration of the game.
   
   
   3. Service is always from the server's right hand side of the table to the opponent's right hand side of the table.
   
   
   4. A service "let" occurs when the serve is good, but hits the net on the way over. The server gets to re-serve without penalty.
   
   
   5. A service fault occurs when the ball fails to comply with the rule 2.3.
   
   
   6. A service double-fault occurs when for the server commits two service faults for the same point. This results in a point to the other player.
   
   
   7. Play continues until one player has reached 21. In the event both players reach 20, play continues until one player has a lead of two points. That player is then pronounced the winner.
   
   
   
   

posted by Jacob @ 11:02:00 pm