Interview The Former President

The former chairman, Mr. Weng Ming-hui, lives in Taipei and graduated from the Politics Department of Chinese Culture University.  He is married and has three children. Mr. Weng was recommended as the first chairman of International Woodball Association on the establishing ceremony held in Taipei city on May 30, 1999.

Q：Why did you have the idea of creating woodball at first?
A：Because I used to be a merchant before fifty and I did lots of business. Later on, it happened by chance that I found a parcel of slope and I exploited it into a garden. Originally, I planned to give this place to my father for strolling and working out.  Owing to the fact that there were many terraced fields in this garden area and I was fond of playing golf, a sport that is quite time-consuming as well as costly, I refined and improved the art of golf and changed it into a brand-new sport so that people would take delight in striking with a mallet.

Q：How did the sport, woodball, be created?
A：In the beginning, I was inspired by golf.  I experimented by trial and error but didn’t get what I wanted. One day, suddenly, I noticed a round woodball with a diameter of ten centimeter long on the handrail of the stairs, and it was just the right size to pick up with one hand.  Then I found the bottle of Taiwan Beer would be the ideal shape of the head of the mallet.  As for the goal, I found my inspiration from the outline of soccer goal. But as I took the movability of goal into account, I decided to have a twenty-centimeter long nail nailed on the bottom of the goal posts. In that way, they can be set on the grass anywhere we like. And when the ball gets through the goal, it will make the woodball cup on the middle of the goal rotate upwards, which represents“Cheers!” It can also decrease argument about whether the ball has passed the goal or not.

Q：What are the differences between woodball and croquet?
A：I never thought of croquet when I was designing woodball. If I did have thought of croquet, I might not have created this sport, woodball. After I had created woodball, some friends of mine said that it was pretty similar to croquet! But the difference is: woodball requires more space than croquet, which means it requires more exercise and action. Anyway, there are many croquet players that are also fond of woodball!

Q：How did you establish the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association?
A：After creating woodball, I invited many friends to try striking it. But many of them asked, “Is the sport created in foreign countries?” So I made up my mind to promote woodball, and the Association was established on Septemper 11, 1993. In the beginning, I used the money I earned and the property my father left for me as the funds to promote it in the hope that I would become known throughout the world.  And since then, I’ve started thinking if my invention would surpass other sports around the world.  After thinking from many different aspects as well as comparing it with other sports, I found that woodbal seemed to be a simple sport, but it is in fact a sport which needs more techniques than other sports.  Besides, it is also the only harmless sports activity.

Q：Have you ever encountered any difficulty?
A：We first established the International Woodball Association and recruited some students.  We cooperated with eleven counties and cities to promote the sport, and some of my friends also helped and supported me a lot. But someone reported to the authorities that the cabin in the garden of my field was an illegal building; therefore, the government demolished it afterward.  In addition, when I asked the Sports Council for promoting woodball, I didn’t get any answer.  So I decided to do by myself.  After promoting for a month, I started to hold many seminars, and then I went to the States, feeling that I finally made a good start. So I made up my mind to stop my current job in order to promote the sport wholeheartedly.