As a kid in primary school (7-12 years old), I've played this game in St Michael's School (SMS) in Singapore. Here's a description.
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Games ~ Court-Martial (a variation of HANTAM BOLA)
Court-Martial (a variation of HANTAM BOLA, but a little more organized). Does anyone remember? I've asked people outside SMS but nobody seem to have played this game... but I remember playing it in SMS... so it may be our very own legacy.
Let's see if I can remember how it was played. Any amount of people can play the game. All you need is a HANTAM BOLA or Tennis Ball, a tree root above soil (to stop the ball rolling to far), with every player having his own dug-out hole (big enough to hold or hole the ball) in front of the tree root, and a circle drawn around all these to mark and area called 'HOME'. A player rolls the ball and if it lands in your hole, you KENA PASANG and you grab the ball to hit someone while everyone else runs away from 'HOME'.
If you haven't hit anyone yet... you stand in the HOME and wait because everyone will try to make it back to HOME without being hit. If you throw the ball to hit someone and miss... you have to leave HOME to retrieve the ball and everyone will try to make it back to HOME while you're away. Anyone hit will have a MISAI (Malay for 'mustache') drawn at your dug-out hole. Ten MISAIs = 1 JANGGUT (Malay for 'beard') and this is to aid in counting later... and we learn a lot from this without even knowing we're learning.
At the end of the game, the one with the most JANGGUTs and MISAIs will kena Court-Martial-ed by standing at the wall to KENA HANTAM by the BOLA. How many times will depend on his JANGGUTs and MISAIs.
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I searched the internet and came across this one solitary article which mentioned this game.
Website Source Link: Click
HERE or this URL:
Source: Oral History Centre
Project Title: Communities of Singapore (Part 1)
Interviewee: MILNE, Ronald Benjamin
Reel/Disc No: 63
Total Reel/Disc No.: 64
Format: MP3
Recording Language/Dialect: English
Copyright: OHC
Running Time (hh:mm:ss): 00:23:25
Transcript Available: Yes
Synopsis:
Games he played during breaks in school. Description of how different types of marble games were played. Description of tops and how a game of tops was played. Other popular games like `chap teh', `hantam bola'. Games he played at home like hoop-race with bicycle rim, seven stones or court martial,`lambong tin'.
Accession No: 000447
Access: Open Access
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