SKITTLES-BASED GAMES
Name: Devil among the tailors
What: Tabletop skittles where nine pins on a square table are knocked down by a ball swung around a pole
Where: Bedfordshire, Cambridge, Macclesfield
Pubs: The Cock at Broom, the Queens Head in Newton, Cambridge, the Wharf, Macclesfield
Name: Dadlums
What: Tabletop skittles in which nine pins are knocked down by cheeses
Where: Kent
Pubs: The Jolly Drayman, Gravesend
Name: Alley skittles
What: Nine pins are knocked down by a ball, three throws per turn
Where: All over the West Country, Wales, Scotland, Staffordshire
Pubs: The Hawbridge Inn, Gloucestershire, the Railway Inn, Westbury, the Old Cross Inn, Cardiff, the Otter Inn, east Devon, the Blue Anchor Inn, Helston, The Frampton Arms, Dorset, the Sheep Heid Inn, Edinburgh, the Burton Bridge Inn, Burton on Trent
Name: Long alley skittles
What: Balls or cheeses are thrown at nine pins. The projectile must bounce once, and the kingpin must be hit first
Where: East Midlands
Pubs: The Horse and Groom, Leicestershire, the Clock Warehouse, Derbyshire
Name: Aunt Sally
What: Players throw wooden skittles at a wooden baton known as a doll
Where: Oxfordshire
Pubs: Lots in the county, including the Crown Inn, Sydenham
CARD-BASED GAMES
Name: Euchre
What: A trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships, with a deck of 24 or 32 cards
Where: St Austell, Cornwall
Pubs: The Sawles Arms
Name: Cribbage
What: A card game that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations that gain points, with a board for score-keeping
Where: Norwich
Pubs: The Duke of Wellington (find more at cribbageinnorwich.co.uk)
WEIRD TABLE GAMES
Name: Nine men’s morris
What: A strategy board game in which players try to form “mills” – three of their own pieces in a line
Where: Kent
Pubs: The Red Lion, Snargate
Name: Bar billiards
What: Players strike balls up the table with a cue, attempting to pot them without knocking over mushrooms, against the clock
Where: Sheffield
Pubs: The Cross Scythes, the Gardeners Rest and the New Barrack Tavern
Name: Bagatelle
What: Players use cues to shoot balls into holes at the rounded end of the board
Where: Chester
Pubs: The Olde Cottage Inn, the Cross Foxes, the Spital Vaults
PENNY GAMES
Name: Shove ha’penny
What: Players push coins up a board, aiming to get a coin in each “bed” three times
Where: Dorset and Somerset
Pubs: The Railway, Blandford, the Three Swans, Frome
Name: Pitch penny/Nurdles
What: Players throw pennies across the room into a hole carved into a high-backed bench
Where: Stretton, Rutland
Pubs: The Jackson Stops Inn
Name: Push penny
What: Similar to shove ha’penny, but using larger old English pennies
Where: Stamford, Lincolnshire
Pubs: The Jolly Brewer, the Tobie Norris
Name: Toad in the hole
What: Similar to pitch penny, but brass discs, or “toads”, are thrown into a hole in a table or box
Where: Lewes, East Sussex
Pubs: The Trevor Arms, the Brewers Arms
LOOPY-HOOPY GAMES
Name: Ringing the bull
What: Players swing a metal ring on a rope on to a metal hook, perhaps in the nose of a bull’s head
Where: Nottingham and Warwickshire
Pubs: Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham, the White Hart Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon
Name: Quoits
What: Rings are thrown at target “hobs” or stakes
Where: Esk Valley, North Yorkshire
Pubs: The Black Horse Inn
GROUP GAMES
Name: Dwile flonking
What: Two teams take turns to dance around each other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked cloth, or “dwile”
Where: East Anglia, Sussex
Pubs: The Dog Inn, Ludham Bridge, the Lewes Arms
Name: Bat and trap
What: A twist on cricket. Batters hit a wooden see-saw with a paddle to release the ball, then bat it to the bowler
Where: Sevenoaks, Kent
Pubs: The White Rock Inn, Ye Olde Beverlie, Canterbury. More pubs here
Name: Dominoes
What: Players try to empty their hands of numbered, rectangular tiles while blocking their opponents
Where: Glasgow
Pubs: The Cornerstone, The Old Oak
