A pub game is one which is traditionally played inside or outside a pub or

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

. Most pub games date back many years and are rooted in village culture. Many derive from older outdoor sports. Pub games can be loosely grouped into

throwing games Throwing sports, or throwing games, are physical, human competitions where the outcome is measured by a player's ability to throw an object. The two primary forms are throwing for distance and throwing at a given target or range. The four most p ...

, dice games,

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

, board games, cue and ball games, bat and ball games, coin pushing/throwing games, and drinking games.

History

In his book, ''Beer and Skittles'',

Richard Boston Richard Boston (29 December 1938 – 22 December 2006) was an English journalist and author, a rigorous dissenter and a belligerent pacifist. An anarchist, toper, raconteur, marathon runner and practical joker, he described his pastimes as "s ...

claims that the first regulation concerning national control of pubs was about pub games; Henry VII's statute of 1495 restricted the playing of "indoor games which were distracting Tudor pubmen from archery". Many of pub games owe their origins to older outdoor sports, adapted and transformed over time for indoor play, either for convenience, or to allow publicans to maintain their teams during the off-season. Gaming activities associated with pubs included card games such as cribbage, throwing games such as

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...

, physical sports such as

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

, and blood sports such as cock fighting. Balls Pond Road in Highbury, London, was named after an establishment run by Mr Ball that had a pond out the back filled with ducks, where drinkers could, for a certain fee, go out and take their chance at shooting the creatures.

Notable pub games

Pub games can be loosely grouped into

, dice games,

, board games, cue and ball games, bat and ball games, coin pushing/throwing games, and drinking games.

Throwing games

Darts

A game which involves the throwing of small missiles at a circular target, called a dartboard. It is one of the few traditional pub games that remains popular to the present day and is played in many countries. When played at a professional level the game adheres to a specific board design and set of rules, but as a pub game it can encompasses several variants, such as 'Cricket'.

Aunt Sally

Traditionally played in pubs and fairgrounds. An Aunt Sally was originally a figurine head of an old woman with a clay pipe in her mouth, or subsequently a ball on a stick. The object was for players to throw sticks at the head in order to break the pipe. The game bears some resemblance to a coconut shy, or skittles. Today, the game of Aunt Sally is still played as a pub game in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

. The ball is on a short plinth about 4 inches (10 cm) high, and is known as a 'dolly'. The dolly is placed on a dog-legged metal spike and players throw sticks or short battens at the dolly, trying to knock it off without hitting the spike.

Devil among the tailors

A form of

table skittles Table skittles is a game in which a ball or spinning top is used to knock over skittles on a small board, usually placed on a table. Table skittles are almost always made of wood. Overview Table skittles are often a small scale imitation of no ...

. The game involves 9 small skittles arranged in a 3 x 3 square, usually within a shallow open-topped wooden box sitting on a table-top. The wooden ball (about the size of a golf ball) hangs from a string or chain attached to the top of a vertical wooden post rising from one corner of the box. The aim of the game is to knock down the skittles by swinging the ball in an arc round the post (rather than aiming directly at the skittles). In the picturesque name, the 'devil' refers to the ball and the 'tailors' are the skittles.

Ringing the bull

A game which involves swinging a bull's nose-ring, which is attached to a string, in an arc so as to hook it onto a bull's horn or hook attached to the wall. It was adopted by the earlier settlers of the

Caribbean islands Almost all of the Caribbean islands are in the Caribbean Sea, with only a few in inland lakes. The largest island is Cuba. Other sizable islands include Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the smaller islands a ...

, where it is also referred to as the Bimini Ring Game. The game is still played in '' Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem'', in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, which claims to be Britain's oldest pub.

Quoits

A game which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber rings over a set distance, usually to land over or near a spike. The sport encompasses several distinct variations which are played either indoors on a small elevated table, or outside on a marked strip.

Dice games

Bar dice is a simple game played with five dice and a cup, often played to determine who buys the next round of drinks.

Card games

Numerous card games have been traditionally played in pubs. Those still popular to the present day include cribbage and

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game wa ...

Cue and ball games

Pool

Pool is played on a billiard table with six pockets into which balls are deposited in a specified order. The game encompasses distinct variants, including

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls ...

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle o ...

, and several others.

Bar billiards

The game, in its current form, started in the UK in the 1930s. The tables were made by the Jelkes company of Holloway Road in London, and sold to many pubs. Today, it mostly played in southern England and

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the ...

on a special table without side and corner pockets, but with 9 scoring holes in the playing surface. On the playfield are normally placed three skittles--guarding the highest scoring holes (the two 50 point holes and the 200 point hole). The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible by potting balls down the holes before either the time runs out or a skittle is knocked over. The last ball can only be potted by getting it into the 100 or 200 point hole after bouncing off one cushion.

Bat and ball games

Coin pushing/throwing games

Pitch penny

A game which involves throwing coins across the room and into a hole carved in the seat of a wooden bench.

Shove ha'penny (or "shove halfpenny")

Played by two players on a small, smooth board, made of slate or wood. A number of parallel lines or grooves run horizontally across this board. Ha'pennies or similarly-sized coins or metal discs are placed at one end of the board and are shoved with a quick flick of the hand. The object is to shove the

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order ...

s so that a certain number of them (normally five) lie between the lines. The two players take alternate turns. In addition to shoving his own coin directly between the lines, a player may use his turn to knock his own coins into position. One set of coins is used by both players.

Toad in the hole

Involves the throwing of brass discs, called Toads, at a hole in a lead-topped table. A variation of this game has been played in pubs in East Sussex, UK, the 'hole' being in the centre of the lead surface.

Drinking games

Other games

* Bagatelle *

Bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gr ...

* Skittles * Table shuffleboard * Table football

References

* * *

External links

Online guide to traditional games

Hickok Sports History
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