Lagori [Seven Stones] Game Rules explained with Diagrams
Lagori is a game played between two teams, in an open ground that is at least 30 feet wide, preferably full of mud. Almost in the middle of this ground is placed a stack of flat stones of about 7 numbers. You can change this based on how challenging you want the game to be as there are no fixed rules when it comes to the number of players, duration, and the number of points awarded to the teams.
How to Play Lagori?
Let us start the game by naming the two teams as Team A and Team B. Team A aims at the stone to knock them down from a distance of around 20 ft. and Team B fields. Every member of Team A gets 3 chances and failing to do so, Team B will take over.
If Team A is successful, to get another chance, they will have to stack the stones up. To take over the knocking side, Team B has to strike a player from Team A below their knee before they stack all the seven stones back. Players from Team B cannot move with the ball in the hand. Players of Team A have to escape the throws of the players of Team B.
Failing to do so, Team B will take over as the knocking team and Team A fields. Now let us see how this looks like by playing one game…
A game of Lagori…
Team A and B both have seven players and Team A starts with aiming at the stones. The 1st player starts aiming at the stone and Team B is ready to field.
The ball pitches beside the stone and the fielder catches the ball, this is when the 1st player loses the other two chances as he is caught at the first attempt.
It is now the second player’s turn. He aims at the ball and misses. But the fielder on the other side from Team B misses catching the ball after one pitch.
Because of this, the second player gets another chance. When the fielder again misses the catch, he will get the last chance.
The next turn is the third player’s. The third person misses knocking down the stone, but by a lot of effort, one of the players from Team B catches the ball without the ball touching the ground after it misses the stones. This is when Team B takes over as the knocking team and Team B as fielding and all the other players of Team A miss the chance of aiming at the stack of stones.
Player 1 from Team B starts aiming at the stone and fortunately knocks down the stones. This is when the fun begins. Players from Team A are fielding the ball.
One of the players from Team A has the ball in his hands. The person holding the ball cannot move. He can pass the ball from where he is to any of the other players of his team. The aim of the whole team is to strike any of the players below their knee from Team B before they stack up the stones.
The player passes the ball to another player who is close to a player from Team B. He catches the ball, strikes at the player, but misses. By the time a player from Team A throws the ball back, the players from Team B have already stacked the stones. So, Team B gets a point and they continue to knock down the stones.
The same player who had knocked down before starts again. He again knocks down the stone, but this time one of the players from Team A catches the ball without the ball pitching. In this scenario, the players of Team B are all out, irrespective of whether the ball knocks down the stones or just touches the stone and goes into the hands of a player from the opposite team.
Again Team A gets the chance of aiming at the stones. The first player knocks down the stones. The second player from Team B strikes one of the players of Team A after receiving the ball from the first player. Doing this Team B gets one more point and gets back the chance of aiming at the stones, while Team A fields.
This cycle of events repeats until one of the teams reach the pre-decided maximum point of 5 or 10 or 15.