Lettered Balls for Use in Word Games

Abstract

A word game has a plurality of tennis balls bearing alpha-numeric characters, spaced apart uniformly on the spherical surface of the tennis balls, a support structure having a thickness, parallel upper and lower surfaces, and an arrangement of indentions configured to support individual tennis balls in a manner to primarily display one alphanumeric character on each ball placed, a mechanism enabling selection of one or more categories for words in a specific game, and a rule set for the specific game, in which athletic activities with the tennis balls may be a part of the rules, wherein the athletic activities may server to acquire balls by players or teams, or to define specific used of balls and characters on the balls in the game.

1 . A word game comprising:
 a plurality of tennis balls bearing alpha-numeric characters, spaced apart uniformly on the spherical surface of the tennis balls;   a support structure having a thickness, parallel upper and lower surfaces, and an arrangement of indentions configured to support individual tennis balls in a manner to primarily display one alphanumeric character on each ball placed;   a mechanism enabling selection of one or more categories for words in a specific game; and   a rule set for the specific game, in which athletic activities with the tennis balls may be a part of the rules, wherein the athletic activities may server to acquire balls by players or teams, or to define specific used of balls and characters on the balls in the game.   
     
     
         2 . The word game of  claim 1  wherein the alpha-numeric characters are in different colors or different fonts and colors an fonts are included as conditions in the rule set. 
     
     
         3 . The word game of  claim 1  wherein the indentions in the support structure are circular through-holes, the support structure has a specific thickness and the relationship of the diameter of the through holes to the thickness is such that a tennis ball placed over one of the through holes is supported entirely by the peripheral edge of the through-hole without the tennis ball touching a surface upon which the support structure rests. 
     
     
         4 . The word game of  claim 1  wherein the support structure has a specific thickness, and the indentions are spherical in form without penetrating entirely through the thickness of the support structure. 
     
     
         5 . The word game of  claim 1  wherein the arrangement of indentions is a Cartesian array having uniform rows and columns of indentions, and a number of indentions equal to or greater than 25. 
     
     
         6 . The word game of  claim 1  wherein the rule set includes requirements for carrying out at least one physical task with the tennis balls in acquiring individual ones of the balls by an individual player or team. 
     
     
         7 . The word game of  claim 6  wherein the physical task involves throwing or catching a tennis ball by one or more players. 
     
     
         8 . The word game of  claim 6  wherein the physical task involves rolling one or more tennis balls by one or more players of the game. 
     
     
         9 . The word game of  claim 6  wherein the physical task involves throwing a tennis ball against a wall and catching it on a rebound by one or more players to the game. 
     
     
         10 . The word game of  claim 6  wherein the physical task involves determining by a result of the task with a tennis ball a particular character on the ball to be presented as a part of a word in the game.