Mölkky is a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 throwing game invented by Tuoterengas company in 1996. It is reminiscent of kyykkä, a centuries old throwing game with Karelia

Karelia

Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...

n roots. However, mölkky does not require as much physical strength as kyykkä, and is more suitable for everyone regardless of age and condition. Mölkky requires no special equipment and success is based on a combination of chance and skill.
Tuoterengas has sold nearly 200,000 sets in Finland.
Tuoterengas owns the Mölkky -trademark.

Rules

The players use a wooden pin (also called "mölkky") to try and knock over wooden pins (also called "skittles") of almost similar dimensions with the throwing pin, which are marked with numbers from 1 to 12. The pins are initially placed in a tight group in an upright position 3–4 metres away from the throwing place (order of pins; 1st row-1_2, 2nd row-3_10_4, 3rd row-5_11_12_6, 4th row-7_9_8). Knocking over one pin scores the amount of points marked on the pin. Knocking 2 or more pins scores the amount of pins knocked over (e.g. 3 pins score 3 points). A pin does not count if it is leaning on the mölkky or one of the numbered pins (they have to be parallel to the ground to count). After each throw, the pins are lifted up again in the exact location where they landed. The first one to reach exactly 50 points wins the game. Scoring more than 50 will be penalised by setting the player's score back to 25 points. A player will be eliminated from the game if they miss all of the target pins three times in a row.

Organisations and competitions

The Finnish championships for mölkky have been organised in Lahti

Lahti

Lahti is a city and municipality in Finland.Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about north-east of the capital Helsinki...

 since 1997 by the union of youth clubs in Southern Tavastia

Tavastia

Tavastia may refer to:* Tavastia , a historical province of the kingdom of Sweden, located in modern-day Finland* Tavastia Proper, a modern region of Finland* Päijänne Tavastia, another region of Finland...

. The technology students in Tampere

Tampere

Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...

 organised world championships in academic mölkky in 2001. The Finnish Mölkky Union has been formed to promote the game and its subculture. An Australian Championship is planned for 2010.

There are several companies selling their own branded versions of the game in Australia under names such as Finska and Klop.

External links

• Finnish International Mölkky Association web site (in Finnish
  Finnish language
  Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
  
  )
• Tuoterengas (in Finnish
  Finnish language
  Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
  
  )
• MolkkyGame.com
• MolkkyUSA.com
• Mölkky Store USA
• TossingGames.com (in English
  English language
  English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
  
  )
• Slovak Mölkky Association (in Slovak
  Slovak language
  Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
  
  )
• Molkky UK Store
• Android App to manage Molkky score
• Molkky Association in French (in French
  French language
  French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
  
  )
• Japan Molkky Association