Coins We'd Like to See: Fly Swatting

Competitive Fly Swatting

A sport I would like to see immortalised on a coin has to be competitive fly swatting. I can think of nothing more irritating than bothersome bluebottles buzzing round a quiet room. In fact, I would rank it as second in a list of my personal pet hates (with the first being Lorraine Kelly). For instance, I was quietly relaxing in bed the other evening with the paper and a packet of cashew nuts (lightly salted) when quite out of nowhere a fly started buzzing around the room. I tried to ignore it for a short while, but sadly the little *astard got the better of me. Then commenced a laborious and irritating attempt to evict it by switching on and off various lights in order to encourage it to exit the room and enter another one. I thought to myself, if only I had a fly swatter to hand. 

What a fabulous invention. 

The first modern fly-destruction device was invented in 1900 by Robert R. Montgomery, an entrepreneur based in Decatur, Ill. Montgomery was issued Patent No. 640,790 for the Fly-Killer, a “cheap device of unusual elasticity and durability” made of wire netting, “preferably oblong,” attached to a handle. The material of the handle remained unspecified, but the netting was crucial: it reduced wind drag, giving the swatter a “whiplike swing.” By 1901, Montgomery’s invention was advertised in Ladies’ Home Journal as a tool that “kills without crushing” and “soils nothing,” unlike, say, a rolled-up newspaper might.

I am clearly not alone in my hatred of these winged pests.  During a 2009 CNBC interview, President Obama killed a fly with his bare hands, triumphantly exclaiming, “I got the sucker!” PETA was less gleeful, calling it a public “execution” and sending the White House a device that traps flies so that they may be set free.

Fly swatting has been turned into a competitive sport in Australia, and although I don't see this being included in the 2016 Rio Olympics, I would wholeheartedly back any bid made for entry. 

Rules:

Are there rules? The most important one is no surface strikes — the fly must be killed midair.

Games include the Single Player Time Trial, where three flies are released to see who can kill them the fastest. There’s also Single Player Grilling, the same thing except you have to smash a fly through the mesh of the swat head within one minute.

I found this on the Australian Association of Competitive Fly Swatting's Facebook page: 

Currently the rules state that if two flies making love will earn double points.  Some within the community feel though that due to the vulnerability of the flies engaged in love making, the rules should be changed to only single points if two flies are swatted. However, one community member argues that double points should be awarded for stopping the damn things breeding! 

I agree.