In a Moroccan oasis town on the edge of the Sahara, nomads in turbans and tunics thwack a camel-wool ball across the desert in a traditional pastime: sand hockey.
Similar in many ways to field and ice hockey, but played barefoot and with palm wood sticks, the ancient game is called mokhacha in the local Hassani Arabic dialect.
“We play mokhacha in our spare time,” said one participant, Hamadi Boudani, at the International Nomads Festival in the southern town of M’hamid El Ghizlane.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Our ancestors were nomads and as soon as they pitched their camp somewhere they would first rest and then, to pass the time, they would start a game,” he said. “This game is part of Saharan tradition.”
The players were cheered on by enthusiastic fans as they churned up the sand in what was once a stop on the storied caravan route to Timbuktu.
They were wearing the daraa, an ample tunic favored by nomadic tribes, and a cheche cloth turban to cover their heads and faces from the desert sun.
The two teams, one in white the other in blue, played on May 1, during the annual Nomads Festival, which also celebrates song and dance and other desert traditions.
Each team is made up of at least seven players, the outline of the pitch is crudely traced by hand in the sand, and the referee is simply known as the sheikh.
Sand hockey “is part of our ancestral heritage”, said Rachid Laghouanm, who heads an association that promotes traditional sports and games in M’hamid El Ghizlane.
“It was handed down from father to son, and it is vital that it does not disappear,” he said.
Like other popular or traditional games and sports, “nomad hockey” as it is often called, is fading into oblivion.
“We are trying to create awareness about the game” by organizing competitions and encouraging players to join them, Laghouanem said.
The UK-based Hockey Museum, which says it is “the first and only museum of hockey in the world,” said that sand hockey has been around as long as any form of hockey “has been in existence.”
Forms of sand hockey are also played in Ethiopia, where it is called genna, and in Tunisia under the name oggaf, the museum says on its Web site.
These and the Moroccan version, “date back over hundreds of years and a number of these games are still thriving, almost unchanged, to this day,” it says.
Other experts believe that hockey’s precursor was a stick-and-ball game with origins as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt.
Boudani said he does not know which came first — sand, field or ice hockey — but what is clear to him is that “the nomads had no means of knowing that Westerners had a similar game.”
SSC Napoli will have to wait one more week to seal the Serie A title after on Sunday being held to a goalless draw at Parma, while closest rivals Inter drew 2-2 in a dramatic game with SS Lazio. Antonio Conte’s team stayed one point ahead of Inter and were unfortunate not to win after twice striking the woodwork through Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Matteo Politano, while Scott McTominay also had a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar. The away side thought they would be handed a chance to take the points from the penalty spot in the 96th minute when David Neres
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
Omar Marmoush’s stunning long-range strike on Tuesday upstaged Kevin de Bruyne on the Manchester City great’s Etihad farewell. Marmoush let fly from about 30m to put City ahead in their 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The victory moved Pep Guardiola’s team up to third in the standings and left qualification for the UEFA Champions League in their own hands heading into the last round of the season. “It’s really important. To be in the Champions League after what happened [this season] will be really nice,” the City manager said. De Bruyne was making his final home appearance for City before