Its name may sound Continental, but along with Australian Rules football, Trugo can claim to be one of only two truly home-grown sports that originated in Melbourne.

It began in the Newport rail yards in the 1920s, when workers would amuse themselves during their lunch break by using mallets to bash rubber buffers from the brakes of trains from one end of an empty carriage to another. If the ring was successfully hit between the open doors at the other end of the carriage, the players would yell out “true go!”.

The game is best described as the bastard child of croquet and lawn bowls. It is played on a grass court 30 yards in length (the same as an old railway carriage). Players in teams of up to eight have four shots in each round, hitting the rings with a heavy mallet, usually swung between their legs with their back to their target (known as “tunneling”), although hitting sideways (“sideswiping”) is also allowed for women.

They score one point if the ring goes between two short metal posts about a metre apart. If it misses, or hits one of the stumps, no point is recorded. A “catcher” stands with a canvas bag at the end of a broom stick to scoop up the rings when they reach the other end. Four misses are called a “Mary”.

This goes on for six rounds and the best score at the end wins the match.

Teams are mixed gender, although it is true to say that one of the two Brunswick teams currently has a dearth of women.

Trugo has been played in Temple Park on the west side of the Upfield railway line since at least the 1940s, when a group of locals who called themselves the Brunswick Old Pioneers used to play the sport near a long demolished rotunda.

They have occupied their current site, in the corner closest to Hodgson Street, for 55 years. Along the way, they have had some famous visitors, including the American author and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who popped in to film a segment for his No Reservations series in 2009.

In its heyday in the years immediately before and after World War Two, there were Trugo clubs all around Melbourne as far apart as Healesville and Prahran. In the inner northern suburbs, there were clubs at Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Preston and Reservoir. Even a quarter of a century ago there were still 13 clubs in Melbourne, but today there are only seven: Brunswick, Footscray, Yarraville, Port Melbourne, Sandridge, South Melbourne and Ascot Vale.

People have been predicting for a couple of decades that the sport would die out, but perhaps rumours of Trugo’s imminent demise are exaggerated. The Footscray club was revived a couple of years ago by a group of younger men who met regularly at a local pub, and Andrew Stevens is working hard to help Reservoir re-establish a club.

The rules were relaxed last decade to allow people aged under 65 to play, and the Brunswick club has gone through a period of generational change and is now led by a younger cohort.

Stevens would dearly love to create the same kind of vibe that has seen lawn bowls regain popularity as a social event for younger people, and to that end, the Brunswick club hosts an open day on the first Sunday of every month with a sausage sizzle, live music, a few beers and, of course, Trugo.

Stevens himself began playing the game out of curiosity almost a decade ago. He would often pass the Trugo club on his way from his home in Brunswick Road to a café or pub, and one day rang up club stalwart Gerald Strachan and was invited down for a hit.

He’s been there ever since, introducing friends and workmates to the game, and is now captain of one of the Brunswick teams (the other team is called Brunswick City). He says the great attraction of Trugo is its inclusivity to anyone no matter their age or sporting ability.

“It’s really something that anyone could come and do,” he says.

“It’s a sport for the rest of us who don’t conform to a certain fitness regime and was once described as golf without the walking. It’s competitive but friendly as well because you’re really just competing against yourself.”