Takyiball 

Takyiball is a sport created in honour of Chief Takyi (also known as Chief Tacky) the Fante royal from what is known as Ghana, who, after being sold to slavery in Jamaica in the 18th century, planned and executed Takyi's War, also known as Takyi's Revolt in April 1760, the biggest slave revolt in the Americas during that time. Takyiball is designed to be tactical, just as Chief Takyi had to be tactical to pull off his War, and requires both physical and intellectual prowess to play.

How to Play

Takyiball is played between two teams of seven players on a field the same size as a basketball or quadball court. At both ends of the field are a basketball/netball hoop in the centre of a goal line. The field is marked with a circle at the half line, just like on a basketball court.

The first section

The game is played in three sections. The first section is a Quiz-and-Shoot section and is divided into two halves. Four of the players from each side form a quiz team while one player from each team goes to centrefield with the ball to shoot. Each team is given one minute to answer questions about Chief Takyi, his War, and trivia about the world around that time period. For every question answered correctly, their shooter gets to shoot at the basket, earning their team 10 points. At the end of the first half, teams may switch their players around for the second half of the first section, in which teams will press a buzzer to answer as many questions as they can. Correct answers gain a chance to shoot at the hoop and incorrect answers deduct a chance to shoot. The shooters again shoot at the hoop the same number of points won by the quiz team, earning their team 10 points for every score. The team that gets the greater score gets to choose who plays with the white pieces in the chess game. They also start with the ball in the second section.      

The second section         

The second section involves all 7 players. 1 Chief from each team engages in a game of chess and the other 6 line up on their goal/hoop lines. They are designated as 1 Keeper, 3 Shooters and 2 Trackers per team. The role of the Keeper is to tackle and block the scorers from scoring. The role of the Shooters are to score points by either throwing the ball into their opponents hoop (10 points) or running with the ball across their opponents' goal lines (3 points). The role of the Trackers is to hit/tag players with dodgeballs, forcing the person who is 'Tracked' to drop whatever ball they are carrying and run back to their team's hoops and touch the hoop before returning to play. Keepers and Shooters cannot touch nor handle the dodgeballs, except to swat them away with the scoring ball, neither can Trackers touch or handle the scoring ball.

The second section starts with three dodgeballs being placed on the centre line and each team lining up on their goal/hoop line. At the sound of a whistle, each team's Tracker rushes to the centre line to grab a dodgeball. Since there are only 3 dodgeballs, but 4 Trackers, one Tracker will not have a dodgeball, and will try to acquire one by intercepting or tackling it from the other team. The Trackers return to their goal lines, and with the sound of the second whistle or a horn, the game begins; both the chess and ball games. The team with the ball advances and tries to score on the other team, while the other team tries to stop them.

Play continues until one of the Chiefs wins by checkmate, earning their team 15 points and ending the second section of the game. The Chief who wins the chess game also gains a dodgeball to enter the game in the third section. 

To determine the set-score that will decide the end of the game, the number of points scored by the winning quiz team in the first section is added to 30 plus the leading score in the second section.

The third section

The two teams switch sides and play begins as before. After the first whistle, Trackers run to grab the dodgeballs and return to their hoops, and after a second whistle or a horn, the game begins with the previously higher scoring team advancing with the ball. The Chiefs enter the game at 7 minutes and are able to play as both Shooters and Trackers, being the only players who can manipulate both the scoring ball and dodgeballs. The first team to reach the set-score wins the game.

Inspiration

Inspiration for Takyiball came from three sports played by the Ranger Cadet Combined Corps (RCC); Earthing, Quadball and Chessboxing. Commsr Dr Chase Neil, being Commissioner of the RCC and a member of Takyi Heritage Foundation, saw fit to combine the RCC sports into a new game that commemorated Chief Takyi and could prove useful in attracting more people to the legacy and impact of Chief Takyi.

Earthing 

The quiz section of Takyiball is inspired both by Earthing Sport and School Challenge Quiz. Earthing is an environmental sport created by Mark Aaron Saus in 2013. It consists of a running sprint on a track then leaping into a pool at the end of the race track and completing the race by swimming. Commsr Chase Neil chose to have the RCC promote and engage in Earthing due to its environmental impact and the 7th objective of the RCC; "to promote anti-litter and preservation of the environment."

'Earthletes' (athletes who compete in Earthing), not only learn to run, dive and swim during Earthing training sessions, but also learn about the environment, wildlife conservation and climate change. Also, with their prize money, Earthletes must utilize a part to carry out an environmental project.

In the same way Takyiballers will learn about Takyi and other historical topics even as they learn to play chess and play the ball game, and part proceeds of their prize will go towards carrying out a project to promote or commemorate Chief Takyi.

Quadball

Quadball, originally called Quidditch, was created by fans of the Harry Potter series to bring to life the quidditch game in the Harry Potter books. The sport is played by 7 players of mixed gender - no more than four persons on the team must be the same gender. Quadballers play with broomsticks between their legs, one hand on the broom as a handicap, and try to score by throwing a volleyball called a quaffle through three hoops while avoiding dodgeballs called bludgers, which are thrown by the opponents. Commsr Neil thought to include Quadball in RCC sports programmes because it carers to both sexes playing together and relates to "the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Corps".

Takyiball is essentially Quadball, except for the Earthing-and-School Challenge Quiz-based Quiz-and-Shoot first section, the replacement of the Seekers and Snitch with chess playing to determine the end of the first ball-playing section (the second section overall), the addition of an extra player who can double as both a Shooter and Tracker, and the fact that Shooters can score by running across the goal line as well as by shooting a score in the basket - inspired by American football.

Chessboxing

Chessboxing is a hybrid sport invented in 2003 by the late Iepe Rubingh, which consists of alternative rounds of chess and boxing. Aiming to combine the #1 thinking sport with the #1 fighting sport in a bid to find the "Toughest Smartest Man/Woman in the World", chessboxing starts with a 3-minute or 4-minute round of speed chess, followed by a 3-minute round of boxing, followed by another 3 or 4 minutes of chess, then another 3 minutes of boxing and so on until someone wins by knockout or checkmate or until one runs out of time on their chess clock. Commsr Dr Neil decided to have Ranger Cadets train in and promote chessboxing because it supported 3 of the 12 Laws of the Ranger Cadet; "A Ranger Cadet keeps his/her mind and body fit, healthy and alert," "A Ranger Cadet is well-equipped to defend him/herself and others," and "A Ranger Cadet is fully in control of what he/says and does, how he/she says and does it, and when he/she says and does it."

Instead of combining boxing with chess, Commsr Neil combined chess with a Quadball-based team mixed-gender ball sport so that even little children could play and minimize injuries, while increasing their tactical and teamwork capabilities just as would have been required when Chief Takyi mobilized the enslaved men and women to fight.