The most curious of all Argentine sports is pato ("duck"), a sport that has its origins in the seventeenth century. The name comes from the original "ball": a trussed duck that the mounted teams would wrestle each other for, trying to secure possession and, with it, the honour of eating the unfortunate bird. It had to be banned in the nineteenth century due to the fact that the duck was rarely the only casualty: few holds were barred, and fierce gaucho brawls or horse accidents left many contestants dead. The sport was revived in the 1930s, but the duck is now symbolic: it has been replaced by a leather ball with six strap handles, and two teams of four riders compete to hurl it through a basket at either end of the 180-metre-long pitch. If you don't catch a live match, you may catch a televised game on one of the otherwise eminently missable rural farming channels. In November of each year, the national tournament is held in Palermo, Buenos Aires.