Ritinis (also ritinys, rypka, rifle, katilka) is a

team sport A team sport includes any sport where individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win or cooperate to entertain their audience. Team members act together towards a shared objective. This can be done in a number of ways s ...

originating in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. It is included in the World Lithuanian Games. Ritinis was also represented in the TAFISA World Games.

Gameplay

Ritinis is often played on a football field. Games last 40 minutes with a half-time interval after 20 minutes. Two teams of seven players each (six strikers and one goal keeper) compete to throw the Rypka, a hard rubber discus, either behind their opponents' back line for 1 point, or in their opponents' goal for 3 points. Players can only throw the discus with their hands, while they can only block the discus with their bats, which are curved and are called Ritmuša. It is common for teams to have five reserve players on hand.

Equipment

* Rypka - a hard rubber discus or "ball" (600-700 grams) * Ritmuša - a curved bat used to stop the discus (<150 centimetres).

Scoring

* 1 point: for throwing the rypka behind their opponents' back line * 3 points: for throwing the rypka into their opponents' goal

History

Ritinis originated from the Lithuanian ethnic game that was played on an open field. It was known since at least the 17th century.Ritinis
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Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija The ''Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija'' or VLE (translation ''Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia'') is a 25-volume universal Lithuanian-language encyclopedia published by the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute from 2001 to 2014. V ...

'' The first rule book of stadium ritinis game was written by Karolis Dineika in ''Vilniaus rypka'' (''the rypka of Vilnius'') in 1923.Liaudies žaidimas ritinis (ritinys) stadione
/ref> In 1958 the Lithuanian Ethnic Games Federation was created and included ritinis. In 1973 a separate Lithuanian Ritinis Federation was established. The first Lithuanian National Championships were held in 1961.

External links

Lithuanian Ritinis Federation

References

Team sports Sports originating in Lithuania Traditional games {{Lithuania-sport-stub