Rat Pucking???

[groomporter]

I finally got around to Googling "Rat Pucking" in an effort to figure out what the heck this Renfair regional term meant. For the rest of  the country, it's a game

The basic Rat Puckin' shot starts with your rat lying upon the ground. You then address you rat by putting the tip of your stick under your rat and using your foot to settle your rat upon the end of your stick. The rat is then pucked, or flung, toward the target with one motion of the stick.

Here's a website with more info
http://www.thewildhunt.com/thegreen/ratpuck.shtml

[filip]

there was a vendor at middlefaire that sold the stuffed rats for pucking. anyone know who it was?

[groomporter]

The official shepherd of the game apparently sells them now.
http://scarlettrat.com/stuff.html
-Let's remember to support the originators if others start playing the game.

PS I've asked him if it would be OK for us to sponsor an official league at MNRF.

Could the RENdezvous maybe include an annual tournament?

[Woodland Artisan]

There were on-going ratpucking rounds at the White Hart Faire (Southwest Missouri) this past Spring.  The person in charge of it said that he had seen it played many years ago at the KC faire and decided to give it a go at White Hart and that he didn't think it was being played at KC for some time now.

On one of the rounds, we even used the Scrapwood Trebuchet as an opening "shot" for the rats on that hole.   People thought it was weird ... but interesting and something to do.

[groomporter]

Someone at MNRF told me a group called the Rat Brigade played something similar in the late 70's/early 80's at MNRF. He thought that some of the original members of the Rat Brigade went on to form Sac Theatre. I wonder if they have any connection to the people at KC that the website claims invented it, or whether it was a case of independent developments.

[Noble Dreg]

I am not a big sports fan, attended my first pro Baseball game this year with my boy who loves it.  So sports don't do a thing for me...now Rat-Pucking?  I'd love to play on such a league.  I'm sure it will take off to prime-time, I'm sure Abnor Doubleday never imagined what his game would turn in to!

Actually played "Rat Pucking" in the late 70's with real rats.  They were living in a pile of garbage behind the store I worked at, manager said "clean 'em out".  All we had was 10 prong rakes, a hoe, and a drainage pond near by.  One of my co-workers jumped on an old matress while the others hit 'em with rakes as they ran out.  I got to fling 'em into the frozen pond with the hoe.  It was not pretty but it was oddly fun.  Had I known this would have turned into a game I would have pattened it then!

[jcbanner]

At the STL faire about two years ago we had a rat pucking team, it was a lot of fun, but we havent been able to restart since due to time constraints

[Fairyfly]

The site doesn't give a date as to when they started Rat Pucking. I know there has been Rat Pucking at the faires in PA as far back as 1994 and I'd suspect longer as well. Interesting how there are only a few faires listed as ones that play the game.

[Anna Iram]

Okay, that's just odd. I had a random thought today about Rat pucking . Odd what runs through my mind...I know.

Anyway, my brother says he used to ratpuck with Emerys Fleet and our King and some others way back in the early eighties when BARF began. Emrys has been our Master of the game for years. I don't know what sort of rights he has to the game, but I had the idea he did have some proprietary rights. I could be way off base on this.

[groomporter]

Is "Emrys" Jim Greene?
If I get a reply from Emrys I'll ask if he had any connection to what was being played in MNRF. In any case, he seems to be who was bright enough to trademark the name "Rat Puck".

[Anna Iram]

Yep that's Jim.

[Al-Nimer]

Here's a few pics I took of people Rat Pucking at Middlefaire a couple weeks ago:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/al-nimer/2917775006/in/set-72157607780742831/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/al-nimer/2917777428/in/set-72157607780742831/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/al-nimer/2916934139/in/set-72157607780742831/

This was the first time I'd seen it played, and it looked like a lot of fun.  However, I don't see how it would work very well at larger, more crowded faires.  Seems like you'd constantly run the risk of hitting your "rat" into someone or something breakable (which did happen at this faire, even though it wasn't crowded at all.)  There are pics later in the set that show what happened to the guy who broke the bellydancers mirror with his rat 

[jcbanner]

typically, there are rules about teh rat hitting people, to the point that it's a penalty if a non-ratpucker even touches the rat.  and of course, as you play, you should be very loud and obnoxious about it. "Clear the Faireway! Flying rats coming through!" thats half the fun with playing, clearing the people out of the way.

[groomporter]

Yeah there's a glossary of terms and rules and even a couple songs at
http://www.thewildhunt.com/thegreen/ratpuck.shtml
For those who still don't get it, it's kind of like golf, but with rats. The person with the fewest strokes to reach the goal wins.

[Dallan]

Rat Pucking is played at MDRF. It would be fun to have a tournament at RENdezvous 2009 where each faire who wished to participate could field a team.