Sports Hangman

This theme covers the world of sport: games like HOCKEY, RUGBY and LACROSSE, events such as MARATHON, HURDLES and JAVELIN, and everyday words from the field like GOAL and TEAM.

Many sports words are built from pieces you can predict. BALL finishes FOOTBALL, HANDBALL, NETBALL and VOLLEYBALL; ING finishes ROWING, SAILING, SKATING and RUNNING. If the last three or four slots are empty, test a letter from one of those endings before anything exotic.

The four-letter entries, GOLF, JUDO, POLO, need care, since several sports fit the same blanks. The theme's longest word, ORIENTEERING, has twelve letters and a lot of E, R and N to help you along.

Martial arts and water sports add some rarer letters: the K in KARATE and KAYAKING, the J in JUDO and JAVELIN. When a K or J shows up, run through those before trying anything else, and use the vowels you already have to pick between them.

Each round is a new sport at random, so you can play as long as you like.