A WhatsApp clip about Mölkky turned us into unlikely celebrities in Japan

In December 2023 I was searching the attic for Christmas decorations when my phone pinged. A WhatsApp message from my son, then backpacking in Australia, contained a short, grainy night-time clip from Queensland showing Louis and his companion Asher throwing what looked like a rolling pin at numbered wooden skittles.

They wore Santa hats and shorts, cicadas chirruped in the background, and the message read: “You might want to take a look at this” followed by “It’s called Mölkky. It’s Finnish. Think you should try it.” As a sports writer, I found it unfamiliar and intriguing.

The clip sent my mind back to a conversation in a Leeds pub five years earlier, when three of us turning 50 had devised a “50 at 50” sporting challenge. After a penalty shootout — ruined for me by a failed Panenka — the talk turned to the slim chances of ever representing our country in conventional sports.

Japan

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