BUMPERBALL ACTION IN UUM

By: Lee Leroy

Email: l33roy333@gmail.com

Sintok, 20 March- Bumperball Free Demo was held in Padang Bola Baling of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). This free demo event was hosted by the Entrepreneur Corporate Club (ECC) of UUM, with Dr Abdul Rahman bin Jaafar being the president of ECC as well as the director of this programme.

According to Dr Abdul Rahman, Bumperball Free Demo is held with the intention of introducing this game to the students of UUM. On the other hand, the demo event is also carried out for promoting an upcoming Bumperball Tournament in UUM.

Bumperball was first created in Norway by Henrik Elvestad and Johan Golden, when it made an appearance on their TV show, ‘Golden Goal’. Since then, the game was spread across the world by self-financed entrepreneurs and now the action of Bumperball reaches UUM, thanks to Dr Abdul Rahman.

The Bumperball match is similar to playing football but each player has a huge plastic bubble ball worn from head to knee. Thus, players will be in the bubble while playing this game and aiming to score goals.

The rules of the match are almost the same as football but with only four players in each team, with each game having only two halves and a one-minute break in between the halves. For official Bumperball Tournaments, the male category will play five minutes per half while the female category will play three minutes per half.

The participants of the free demo took turns in playing against each other, without separating them into male or female category, as it was just a friendly game. The participants were seen tumbling and falling down upon running into each other enjoyably and laughter can be heard throughout the activity.

Exhausted and thirsty participants were provided with packed cold drinks and breads prepared by the committee members of ECC. “It was very tiring and maybe it was because of the hot weather and that bubble was quite heavy. But I had fun.” said one of the female participant.

The hot weather became an obstacle to the fluency of the event as students were discouraged to participate in the games, especially the female students. Unfortunately, no tents or umbrellas were prepared in this event but the organizer reassured the participants that improvements will be seen on the day of the Bumperball Tournament.

The Bumperball Tournament will be held on the 27th of March, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Padang Bola Baling UUM, the same place where the free demo was held. Registrations were also open on the day of the free demo as ECC committee members were promoting and explaining the tournament to participants of the free demo.

No quota of teams was stated for Bumperball Tournament based on its promotional brochure but according to Dr Abdul Rahman, they have nine teams registered in total at the end of the free demo event on 20th of March. Dr Abdul Raman added that more teams were expected to register by the last day of registration which is on the 26th of March.

The fees for the Bumperball Tournament will be RM25 per team, with five players a team. Although the Bumperball game is a four-a-side, one player will serve as a substitute for every team and it is depends on the team whether they want to have a substitute player in the game.

“ECC has an idea of hosting another Bumperball league in the near future where it will be open to all local universities in Malaysia” said Dr Abdul Rahman. On the other hand, he also mentioned that the winners of the coming Bumperball Tournament will stand a chance to be instantly qualified for the league, not needing to go through the qualifier matches.