FATKAT FACEBALL GO!

We gotta do this!

Has your boss banned you from using Facebook? Need a new way to while away the tedium of office life? Look no further - here's Faceball.

The game - in which competitors attempt to keep their nerve while a colleague hurls a large beachball directly at their face - is taking London's workplaces by storm.

Pictures of players grimacing with fear as they await the impact of the ball, and frozen in shock after it has rebounded from their nose, are being forwarded to friends via the internet, ensuring the popularity of the game.

More than 130,000 people have visited www.faceball.org, set up to promote the pastime.

Matches have been played already at Tate Britain and Alexandra Palace.

The rules are simple. Players sit opposite each other, 10 feet apart. They are not allowed to flinch or move. Each hit to the face scores a point and gives the thrower another shot.

The game was invented by Dunstan Orchard and John Allspaw, two American employees at photo-sharing website Flickr.

They told how they first started throwing beachballs at each other when they found a batch of promotional balls left over from an office party.

"We had so many of those balls being hit around our office," said Flickr designer Mr Orchard.

"Accuracy competitions evolved between a couple of us and the end result was Faceball.

"Because the balls are light, they are tricky to aim when using any kind of force.

"The ability to hit people from a distance thus became a much sought-after skill.

"It's actually enjoyable getting hit in the face by your opponent. It's an excellent way to relax."

Soon after the pair invented it, the game became popular with technology firms, including Google and Apple, and spread to Britain.

Tom Hughes-Croucher, a Yahoo employee in London, said: "It's surprisingly difficult to play at first. The secret is in the flick of the wrist."

Thanks to Daily Mail for the content.