[Vocabulary] play snowball / have a snowball fight

[aficionado]

In my native language, when we talk about "snowball", we use it with the verb "play." I wonder playing snowball sounds like natural use of language in English?
I looked it up in a few dictionaries and I couldn't find an example with play.


Do all of the following sentences sound OK and can they be used interchangeably?


1.Children were throwing snowballs on the street.
2. Children were having a snowball fight on the street.
3. Children were playing snowball on the street.

 

[Rover_KE]

1 and 2 (if you had helpfully numbered them) are OK, though I prefer 'in the street'.

3 is wrong in English.

 

[aficionado]

1 and 2 (if you had helpfully numbered them) are OK, though I prefer 'in the street'.

3 is wrong in English.

What I don't understand is that there are people who use it on major newspapers like Guardian.

[FONT=&quot]Another 10-year-old, Ashvini, kept warm by playing snowballs with his dad, Dheeraj Kulshrestha, after possibly the longest journey of everyone. They were stopping off in London en route from Ohio to India and decided to make the pilgrimage to Stonehenge for the solstice.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Steven Morris- Guardian

[/FONT]

"But I have always liked Charles - I've always had a soft spot for him. I used to watch Charles and Anne playing snowballs as children at Sandringham, they had little blue coats on. Yes, I go back a long way."
By Zoe Applegate & Martin BarberBBC News, Norfolk

 

[aficionado]

Rover said that Children were playing snowball on the street was wrong. He was right.

Just to make it clear, would it be OK if I said "playing snowballs ?

 

[Rover_KE]

Stick to 'throwing snowballs'.

 

[GoesStation]

Or having a snowball fight.

 

[Tdol]

Just to make it clear, would it be OK if I said "playing snowballs ?

It still sounds odd to me. It could be a regional expression, but I haven't heard it in BrE.

 

[abaka]

"Snowball tag" is a game that has a little more structure than the free-for-all of a snowball fight.

 

[Tdol]

Isn't the whole point of snowball fights the free-for-all chaos?

 

[SoothingDave]

"Playing snowball(s)" is completely unnatural to me, too.

 

[Tdol]

I was shocked a few years ago when a couple of very polite British kids asked me if I minded if they chucked a snowball or two at me. I was the only target in the park, but was astonished to be asked. I said they could bombard me and my dog.