Finska – a Summer Bonanza

It's 2pm on the first Saturday of December. The sun has turned its full, friendly face towards the gathering below. There's a light breeze on the wind, which alleviates some of the heat that's been steadily rising since November. Birds chirp in the trees and kids dash from one place to the next seeking a source of water to cool off in, be it sprinkler or lake. Everyone's happy and fed with a BBQ or homemade sandwiches, watermelon, rockmelon and kiwi fruit, fairy bread, a cheeky packet of timtams and a heaping of drinks cooling in an esky. You've escaped the oppressive Christmas music that faithfully began the exact day Halloween ended.

Let's play a game, someone shouts to bobbing heads of agreement from the rest. Someone tugs you out of your very comfortable chair. Come on, they say, I've got just the game for you. You're led towards misshapen bowling pins sticking in the grass. Someone shoves a solid, wooden log into your hands. What are you waiting for, throw!

Originally from Finland, Finska is a simple throwing game for 2-8 players. The entire game consists of twelve pins numbered from one to twelve and a thick log for throwing. The rules are blindingly simple:

• Set up the numbered pins as shown in the rules.
• Set a throwing line three or four metres away from the pins.
• Either individually or in teams, take turns throwing the log at the pins. Make sure to use an under-armed throw.
• At the end of your go, set the pins upright exactly where they landed, no matter how far away!
• If you or your team don't hit anything three times in a row you're eliminated from the game.

If you knock over a single pin, score the number on top. However, if you knock over more than one you instead score the sum of the downed pins. Did you knock down the illustrious '12' pin only for that wobbly '3' to finally fall? Oh well, I guess that's only two points for you.

The aim of Finska is to get to fifty points flat, however, if you go over the goal you get sent back to twenty-five points. This is where the real nail-biting competition and endless fun begins. At the start the pins remain clustered in a 'safety in numbers' scenario until a particularly strong arm sends them flying. Over the course of the game the pins will spread, either by natural cause and effect or deliberate sabotage from your opponents to dash away the winning number. The grass is both your ally and your worst enemy, both bouncing the log to sail far over your desired pin, or suddenly dragging it to a stop. And suddenly, you're in danger of being eliminated from the game altogether. Anything can happen in a game of Finska.

It's 6pm on the first Saturday of December. Your sides hurt something awful from laughing so hard. Your feet, shoes ditched long ago, are covered in grass stains.