Sur-papag
A game of two mounted teams that try to throw a cap through a ring.
About
Sur-papaq is a team game played on horseback, and in its present form it resembles basketball on horses. Two teams contend for a cap made of woolly sheepskin and stuffed with wood shavings or straw: the players pass the cap to one another and try to put it through the opponents' ring.
The game tests the riders' strength and agility and their ability to fight together for one goal.
A game close to sur-papaq has been recorded among the Terekeme of Karabakh under the name kechipapag: there the ball is sewn of goatskin, a hoop one metre across hangs from a tree, and each team has five riders.
Rules in brief
The field is about 150–200 metres long and 60–120 metres wide. At each end stands a post 3 metres high with a ring 50 centimetres across on top. Each team has 4–8 riders. The game has two halves of 10 minutes with a 5-minute break; the teams change ends for the second half.
It is forbidden to throw the cap at the ring from outside the field, to hold the cap for more than 4 seconds, to hand it over without throwing it, and to strike an opponent or his horse. For a foul a penalty throw is awarded or the player is sent off. If the score is level, two extra periods of 5 minutes are played, followed by penalty throws from 5 metres.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept
Sources
- Azərbaycan döyüş sənətləri və oyunları — Vikipediya
- Füzuli Bayat. Şamandan səmazənə: oyun və oyunçu. Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2017, s. 139–147
- İllüstrasiya: süni intellektlə hazırlanıb, Komitə təqdim edib
- Qarabağ: folklor da bir tarixdir. II kitab (Bərdə və Ağcabədi rayonlarından toplanmış folklor örnəkləri). Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2012, s. 171–172 («Tərəkəmə oyunları»)