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British Bulldog (also: running red rovers, red rovers, rovers, jailbreak, octopus, seaweed, bullies, bullrush, Russian bulldog, bulldogs charge, or simply bulldogs) is a tag-based game, of which red rover and cocky laura are descendants.

Most commonly one or two players – though this number may be higher in large spaces – are selected to be the "bulldogs". The bulldogs stand in the middle of the play area. All remaining players stand at one end of the area (home). The aim of the game is to run from one end of the field of play to the other, without being caught by the bulldogs. When a player is caught, they become a bulldog themselves. The winner is the last player or players 'free'.

The play area is flexible—it can be played on a street, a playground, between cloisters, in a large hall or on an area of a playing field—though there is no definition of the size of the pitch nor the number of players as long as there is enough space for the players to run about and enough players to have fun.

It is played mainly in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand (as bullrush or kingasini),Canada and other Commonwealth countries by children at school. Variants of the game have been recorded from the nineteenth century. It originated in the United Kingdom. The game is characterised by its physicality and is often being regarded as violent, leading it to be banned from many schools in the 1960s and 1970s due to injuries to the participants, although this trend is now being reversed. Many British schools in the 21st century still don't allow children to play it, but some schools allow children to play it as long as it is non-contact (i.e, instead of the bulldogs restraining a person to the ground to capture them, they just tap them as they would in a game of tag.)

As is usual with games, the particular rules applied vary from location to location, but with the same principle. The playing area consists of a main playing area, with two 'home' areas on opposing sides (similar to the touchdown areas used in rugby or American football). The home areas are the width of the playing area and are usually marked by a line or some other marker.


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