The shirtless men circled and lunged at each other under the bright sun as the crowds watched, rapt, from the sidelines. One combatant, his head lowered like a bull ready to gore, chose an opponent to tag, only to suddenly find himself trapped in an upside-down bear hug and being shaken like a stubborn ketchup bottle as a referee’s whistle blasted.

England had just been awarded a point over Canada West.

Successive waves of immigrants have woven ethnic sports like hurling, bocce and cricket into the New York fabric. On Sunday, Cunningham Park in Queens became an arena for kabbadi, a traditional Punjabi competition, which perhaps could be thought of as a combination of rugby and wrestling  without the ball and the protective gear  with a helping of the old New York street game ringalevio thrown in.

The rules are simple enough, but winning a kabbadi match is tricky  and often painful. The eight-member teams on Sunday fielded four raiders and four stoppers inside a big circle 140 feet in diameter bisected midway by a white line.

The raiders invade their enemies’ half of the field and try to make it back home safely. Stoppers relish the opportunity to corner and pummel the interlopers.