The rules of cheeseminton are simple. Just as in ordinary badminton, a shuttlecock must be biffed energetically over a net by opposing players. Also like ordinary badminton, a point is scored when the shuttlecock hits the ground. Unlike ordinary badminton, however, that point is annulled if, before the shuttlecock lands, the opponent nibbles off the hunk of cheese stuck to its tip.

Cheeseminton is not, as yet, an Olympic-accredited sport. It's also lacking a national association and, in truth, has yet to be played in this country. Or anywhere. But, as its creator, I can envisage it being embraced by the public - just imagine the potential for cheeseminton and wine parties - and, with the simple replacement of gruyere by Dairylea, beloved by children. For the dairy intolerant, cheese could be swapped with flavoured quorn.

The only thing preventing cheeseminton blossoming into an activity that excites the world is the sheer number of unconventional new sports competing for people's attention.

Here are just a few of the alternatives: blokarting (street yachting, if you can imagine that); kickball (softball played with the feet and a lightweight football); octopush (underwater ice hockey); footbag (the cool name for keeping a hacky sack in the air); roller hockey (as it sounds, and already well-established); goalball (originally designed for blind players, it involves blacked-out goggles and having a ball thrown at you); paddleball (still not sure what this is, though it uses oversized plastic table tennis paddles); and tchoukball (handball meets dodgeball with trampolines for nets).

To observe the make-up of each of these sports is to glean a few clues as to their common ingredients. They all repurpose an existing sport in some way, some adapting the rules of several into an often more complicated form. Their names are always conjunctions of the old and the new: "karting" is old, "blo" is new (at least without a w); balls are old, paddles, however, distinctly new. There is often the possibility of an ideology to accompany the game, though few can compete with the tchoukball charter, laid down by its inventor Dr Herman Brandt, which states boldly in its opening clause: "The game excludes any striving after prestige, whether personal or collective." This sentiment, it needs to be said, goes directly against the abiding principles of cheeseminton.

What would make anybody want to invent a sport? And why so many of them? A common cause appears to be when players of a more traditional sport decide they want to make things more interesting for themselves. Another cause is a simple enthusiasm for experimentation - particularly evident in the ever-growing roster of extreme sports (ladies and gentlemen, I give you street luge). However, some of the latest sporting innovations have taken a less organic route into existence.

Night tennis made its debut last autumn in a university sports hall outside Madrid. Played on a customised court smaller than normal, it had several new rules: the game was played against the clock; serves had to land in the back of the court; scoring went from one to nine; extra points were awarded for trick shots.

But the biggest changes were off the court. Played in a blacked-out space, the balls were neon, the players were bedecked in neon face paint and, in the stands, spectators waved glowsticks, quaffed drinks from the licenced bar and wiggled enthusiastically to the beats of superstar DJs flown in for the occasion.

Night tennis was not an idea inspired by the World Tennis Association; rather it was the brainchild of telecommunications manufacturer Sony Ericsson. "The background idea was to leverage the fact that Sony Ericsson sponsors the women's professional tour," says Merran Wrigley, part of the PR team that devised the sport. "We were looking for interesting ways of moving the game beyond the court, of engaging with people who watch on TV, but don't necessarily buy tickets to a match."

The event itself was a success with the WTA's chief executive hailing it "a very exciting time for the sport". Could night tennis prove to be the new 20/20, the shortform version of cricket that appears to have succeeded in bringing a new audience to the game? Since Madrid, there has been one more night tennis event, in Miami. It was hoped that a third would be held in Britain ahead of Wimbledon, though this now looks unlikely. Wrigley says the prospect of any more events are now in the hands of national associations.

So without wishing to distress any potential future cheeseminton sponsors (I'm looking at you, Le Roulé), it does appear that it's far easier to invent a sport than to find an audience for it. Take speedminton as another example. Tipped in the occasional magazine article and with a flashy website boasting of the outdoor thrills offered by a new form of shuttlecock - a speeder - which weighs more than its traditional cousin and has a "streamlined basket".

Yet while buying the equipment for the game is easy, trying to find anyone to play it with is difficult. Barry Martin had hoped to be the first to bring the speedminton craze to Britain, but it turned out all he brought were a few rackets. "Take up has been very slow," he explains from his Nottingham sports shop. "I play badminton and so I bought a speedminton set, contacted the German suppliers and offered to sell it. I even set up a website, speedminton.co.uk. It has not captured the public imagination, though, and the Germans have told me to stop running the site. They've handed the licence over to a company that makes concrete ping pong tables."

In a handy parallel with night tennis, the creators of speedminton recently invented blackminton. Played totally in the dark on a tri-partite court and featuring the customary neon facepaints, it's uncertain whether it has ever been played in the UK yet. "Someone just took a racket and stuck a glowstick in the handle," says Martin. "I'm going camping at the weekend, though. I can take a set and try it out for you."

Whether all these sports will catch on remains to be seen, though it does appear that offering people a game they want to play rather than a flashy new piece of kit might be the best way around.

There will be no tiring of innovation itself however. Sport England chief executive, Jennie Page, is keen to stress the need to create new activities, especially for kids and especially at night. "There is a need for new sports and night sports might be one way of fulfilling it," she says. "You look at the success of 20/20 under floodlights, it really brought in a different audience. And cricket has been great at taking the game outside its formal setting. They've literally been sending people like Kevin Pietersen out on to the streets and just getting kids to play with a bat and ball."

And while Blackminton may be struggling, there appears to be more enthusiasm for midnight basketball. "It's a popular game," says Page, "which gives kids something to do, teaches them skills and, to be honest, stops some of them from raising hell at night. You have to take sport to where the people are."

All of which makes me wonder if I was barking up the wrong tree. Forget cheeseminton, let's play night cheese!