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Trugo PDF Print E-mail
Written by Bernie DeKoven   
Sunday, 10 June 2007

Searching, as I am oft wont to do, for evidence of newly, or relatively newly invented sports, I found my cursor resting contemplatively on the word "Trugo." 

Trugo game - like croquet with mallet and wheel According to this vividly explanatory video, the idea is to use a large mallet to whack a wheel-shaped something (which makes one think that a perhaps more descriptive name might be "whack-a-wheel") a great distance (90 feet) so that it rolls across a quite narrowly defined goal. 

Invented, so the story goes, by railway workers in the 1920s, the mallet-bearing player stands with his or her back to the goal, and whacks the wheel between his or her legs. A goal keeper stands behind the goal with a net, to scoop up the wheel. As a mature-bodied person myself, I can only admire the wisdom of incorporating a long-handled, backbend-preventing wheel-scooper into the official equipment of the game.

According to the video, the name of the game, Trugo, came from the expression a goalkeeper might use when a shot is successful: "true go." Get it? Trugo. True go. Unless you're playing the women's game, which is called Gotru. Go figure.

The game, invented by railway workers in Newport, Australia, was played with railway-working mallets and a "carraige buffer." The 90 feet was the length of a railway carriage. A most junkyard-like invention, embracing in spirit and practice the found-object tradition of all Junkyard Sports.

Trugo, which is rapidly becoming an historical artifact, remains basically unchanged from the original invention. We, on the other hand, who have no such need for remaining loyal to tradition, find in Trugo the inspiration for the invention of a veritable myriad of new wheel-and-mallet sports. Or perhaps hammer-and-washer sports. Or even bat-and-hula-hoop.

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 10 June 2007 )
 
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