- published: 27 Dec 2011
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Cammag (Mx., pronunciation:/kamag/) is a team sport originating on the Isle of Man. It is closely related to the Scottish game of shinty and is similar to the Irish hurling. Once the most widespread sport on Man, it ceased to be played around 1900 after the introduction of association football, though it has experienced a revival in the 21st century.
Equipment involves a stick (Manx: camman, meaning "little curved thing") and a ball (crick or crig) with anything between four and two hundred players. Sometimes whole towns and villages took part, or even played each other. The cammag can be any stick with a bent end, and is similar in design to the caman in shinty, both unlike the Irish camán, having no blade. A gorse wood cammag, if of suitable size and shape, was a very much treasured possession. The crick can be made from cork or wood, and varied from circular to egg-shaped, sized from approximately two inches in circumference to the size of a fist. Old accounts tell that the crick was sometimes covered in cloth or leather.