Eddy Has His Sights Set on the Finska World Champs
Intern Brayden
I’m sure there are many of you that have spent this holiday period on your back lawn, drowning in blokes, yarning with your Uncle Greg, bowling serious heat at Nan’s chin and of course playing some Finska. The Finnish log throwing game has fast become a staple in outdoor gatherings, entertaining family and friends for hours whilst also causing a rift in some relationships.
Finska, or Mölkky, is made up of 12 numbered pins, where players stand approximately 4-5 metres away with a large pin of their own. Each player or team must knock down the numbered pins and score exactly 50, with the count moving back to 25 if you breakthrough. After each throw, the score is counted and the pins are stood up wherever they were hit to, with three consecutive misses resulting in a forfeit. Knocking down 1 pin will give you a score of the number marked on that pin, whereas knocking down multiple pins will score you the number of pins knocked down. If that makes no sense, DYOR.
Besides the ability to count, arm strength, conditioning, and aim, what separates the casual player from the elite are tactics. Do you throw horizontally or vertically? Do you go for a single pin or multiple? Do you try to score for yourself, or sabotage your opponents’ chances? One person who always seems to know the answer is the great Edward Simpson himself. The depths of skill and talent to make it to the top of the Finska heap is incredible, and after watching highlights from the 2018 World Championship Final between Finland and Estonia, my eyes were opened to what players are truly capable of.
Without getting too deep into woo-woo territories, dreams have been known for centuries to be a mystical source of information that could predict future events.
From ancient Egypt where Moses interpreted the dreams of Pharoah to accurately predict famine years, to the more modern and probably just as factual Tom Cruise in Minority Report, who envisions crimes before they happen in a dream-like state.
Marnus currently has 12 test wickets and 64 first-class scalps to his name, although just about all of them have been via his part-time leg-spin.
His pace bowling credentials were put to the test this year as he was thrown the ball during a Sheffield Shield game last year.
Despite the game being out of reach for QLD, the lonesome highlight came when Marnus dismissed Cameron ‘Baggy’ Green for just 15 with a lovely in-swinger that Green was fooled into leaving.
Held every year, the World Championship hosts approximately 200 teams of 4-6 players, with the world’s best coming together to compete for the chance of glory.
The game has gathered so much attention the International Mölkky Organisation (IMO) has even created its own vocabulary list that you can listen out for on the live streams. E.g.
• Mökeltää – Trying to justify your bad throws
• Mölkvisti – A player who is taking the game a bit too seriously
• Mölkysti – A very strong player
Held in France in August this year, and with the amount of R&R Eddy is getting through in Byron, I see no reason why after nailing down a solid training regime Eddy could not be the first to represent Australia on the big stage.
The Simpson bloodline seems to have Finska talent written into it, and being a Mölkysti already the sky seems to be the limit for the King of Fin.
We will truly get a sense of where he is sitting after the Australian Championships coming up and if things are looking promising I think it’s only fair to get as many dribblers as possible on a flight to France to show their support in person.
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