Official Rules of Ghosting

A sport widely tipped to take the 2012 olympics by storm (if they allow it to be included) is one that has been invented by well known Australians, Hamish and Andy.

To start off with, the whole sport comes under the category of getting into someone's personal space. Anyway, the original 'ghosting' involves the competitor walking as close as they can behind the 'target', without being caught by the 'target'. The time starts when the ghost is 'engaged'. Usually competed between two teams, the winner is the team who can stay behind the person for the longest amount of time.

This is only the beginning, one on one. There is then a progression if the competition needs to be spiced up a bit. Again, if at the end of the competition there is a tie (equal number of 'ghosting' rounds won) then there is a tie breaker. For the one on one stage there is 'speed ghosting'. The rules for this are very similar to that of original ghosting, except the competitor follows a jogger. Same rules about time apply. 

There are also other variations of the game. If more than 2 people want to play, then they can be split into teams. For example a 2 on 2 situation. If this were to occur, then they could take part in a 'tag-team' ghosting session. Again similar rules applying, however with 2 people this time, and the competitors need to 'tag' each other to swap over the ghost. (This can be used to incorporate a third person if necessary). Furthermore if there is another draw, then a tie breaker needs to be completed. A widely used example of this is 'free-style' ghosting, where the team creatively follow the target. One such is example is the 'shoulders' technique (famously used by Hamish and Ryan in the recent ghosting championships held in Australia) where one of the competitors rides on the other person's shoulders and ghosts a person. Another method (also used in the ghosting championships this time by Andy and Peter) was the 'tandem-ghost', where they follow two people who are walking side by side. 

Now for the up-coming ghosters. Firstly we have John David Robert McCrea from Naboo. He actually opened the majority of the world's eyes to ghosting, including myself. On saturday in the warm-up games in Nottingham, he attempted to ghost a delivery van. Very impressive. 

Another man goes by the name of Conor O'hare. This guy also was competing on saturday and showed impressive ghosting skills, while ghosting an old man. Impressive also.

And finally we come to yours truly. Matthew English (AKA ME) ghosted a postman who was delivering in Nottingham.

These three made up Team Spoon on saturday. Now, there were reasonable attempts in the games, including 2 particular examples of tandem tag-team ghosting (Part of the new combined area of the sport) where we actually went completely undetected, and another on Haydn Clarke, going into the cornerhouse, where we were undetected for a long time, blowing all other competition out of the way. However, what made the day truly spectacular was a, never before attempted ghost, christened 'Conga ghosting'. The three of us were about to embark on a triple ghost on 'guy in a camo coat', when there was a couple who got between us, however, they followed closely behind 'guy in a camo coat' and unwittingly participated in a 6, that's right, 6 man conga ghost, for around half a minute. A new recored for the games, and making us strong competitors in the upcoming world cup. 

Next time, another sport invented by Hamish and Andy, 3 step nick knocking.

Thank you and goodnight :)

xxxxxxx