Rounders, Romanian-style

A TRADITIONAL Romanian sport involving no physical contact between players was staged in Henley for the first time.

Eleven members of Henley Rugby Club’s Vikings and Vultures squads competed in two oina matches at Dry Leas on Saturday.

Playing together as Vikings Oina, they beat the London Oina Society, which brought the sport to Britain last year and is the first non-Romanian team outside of the country.

Despite having learned the rules only 24 hours earlier, the Vikings won their opening game but then lost the next one even though their opponents were all actors playing under the slogan “winning is for losers”,

However, the Henley players scored the most points to win the match overall.

The event was organised by the Vikings’ Richard Webb, who joined the London club after meeting its founder Rob Carter through a mutual friend.

After playing regularly in the capital, he wanted to set up an oina side in Henley so he put the team together and arranged the event as a trial run.

The sport, whose name derives from an old Eastern European word for “game”, was first played by shepherds centuries ago and is described as a cross between baseball and British bulldog.

It is played in two halves with each side taking turns to play as “batters”, using a wooden bat, and “catchers”.

The first to bat is decided by a ritual in which one player from each team must wrestle the bat from the other’s grip, which Henley won.

Catchers stand 16m apart in a grid formation facing the batters, who line up at one end of the 70m pitch.

Each batter has to strike a heavy leather ball towards the opposition, who score points for catching it.

After taking their swing, batters “attack” the catchers by running through the space between them to a “safe” zone at the other end and back again.

The catchers win extra points by hitting them with the ball.

They may cause confusion by passing it quickly among themselves and batters can dodge attacks or repel them using the palms of their hands.

Both sides wore fancy dress over their strips on Saturday, with costumes including a tartan kilt, a Roman centurion’s hat, a thick gold chain and sunglasses, tight leopard-print shorts and floral garlands.

Between the games, the teams chatted and discussed the rules and history of the sport. A public address system played traditional English and Romanian music and more than 50 people gathered to watch the action while drinking beer in the sunshine.

There were plans for more matches but the weather was so hot that the players feared they would get sunburnt.

Mr Webb and Mr Carter hope to encourage other oina teams to launch in Britain, which could form a national federation and then join forces with its counterparts in Moldova and Romania as an international federation.

It’s also hoped that the Henley players will visit Romania to compete against teams there.

Mr Webb said: “It was a very successful day and I was really happy with everyone as all the players put in a lot of effort in. Many friendships were made.”

Mr Carter, who was referee due to an injury, said: “The Henley team are a very sporty group of guys so they were great opponents and having them on board could really help to spread oina more widely. They gave us a good game and a bit of a whipping because they’re naturals. Although they’d only just learned the rules, they had all the basic skills like strength, catching and running and they’re what you really need.

“It has been difficult to set up other oina teams in London because there aren’t many suitable venues but Henley has the perfect pitch and we’re excited to think about where it could go from here.

“We’ve got lots of plans and we’ll have to see how things pan out with coronavirus but we definitely want to have another match in Henley within a year.”

The game was sponsored by communications firm Fidelity, of Station Road, Henley, and Tankbeer, of Slough, for which Mr Webb is operations manager and which provided refreshments.