Cup stacking outmuscles finger wrestling as Hong's Kong's latest sports craze

For those of us who have never had the privilege of mastering the ancient art of Bavarian finger wrestling or competed in the wife-carrying world championships, there's always sport stacking.

Sport stacking (also known as cup stacking or speed stacking) is an individual and team sport that involves stacking specialised plastic cups in specific sequences in as little time as possible.

You'd think it was a sport that would be perfect for shop assistants from your nearby Wellcome store, but sport stacking aficionados claim that it is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. It originated in the early 1980s in southern California and received national attention in 1990 on a segment of the Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson.

Participants basically stack cups in pre-determined sequences, competing against the clock or another player. Sequences are usually in pyramids of three, six, or ten cups.

In some countries there's every possibility you'd be beaten to a pulp if you admitted to playing a sport as unfashionable as this one, but don't casually dismiss it as another novelty leisure pursuit. Sport stackers here say that it's not all about stacking cups.

Mike Watson is Hong Kong's World Sport Stacking Association representative and got involved in the sport three years ago. Watson taught his pupils sport stacking when he first worked as a PE teacher at Hong Lok Yuen International School. He has since moved on to Hong Kong International School and they now play it there, too.