Competitive projectile game

Claim 1

A game apparatus comprising: means defining an inclined playing surface having an upper end and a lower end, and having two playing stations at the lower end; a reboundable spherical playing piece movably supported on said surface; said playing surface being bounded by a pair of transversely extending opposed end retaining walls at the upper and lower ends of said surface, and a pair of generally longitudinal opposed side retaining walls extending between said upper and lower ends of said surface defining the sides of said playing surface, said side walls being angularly oriented so as to converge toward said upper end, and said side and end walls completely surrounding the playing surface and abutting the edges of the playing surface to provide for rebounding of the playing piece from any point about the playing surface; flexible resilient rebounding barrier means mounted across the upper end of the playing surface and adapted to rebound a playing piece; dividing means near the lower end of said surface separating the two playing stations; a plurality of hand held, playing piece impelling instruments, whereby players of the game at their respective playing stations may strike a playing piece thereat back and forth against said resilient barrier means in an effort to direct said playing piece toward the other player''s playing station, and a shield mounted at the upper end of the playing surface spanning the retaining wall thereat and overlying said flexible rebounding barrier means to prevent the spherical playing piece from escaping the playing area adjacent the flexible rebounding barrier means.