Traditional pub games

[pennymachines]

For the most part, pub games were not coin-operated, but are culturally closely related. In fact coin-operated games appeared in pubs before they found a place in arcades and fairground side-stalls. Pickwicks, early allwins, assorted 'skill games' and mechanical music precursors of jukeboxes (Polyphons, barrel pianos etc.) appeared alongside such traditional competitive pastimes as bar billiards, table skittles, shove ha'penny and darts. The great variety of games, many with particular regional popularity, included Pétanque, Spoof, Nine Men's Morris and Devil Amongst the Tailors. Like amusement machines, they offered the dual attraction of entertainment and betting.

Most of the pubs which housed them have been lost or modernized with the general decline in pub culture so the few that retain such games are to be treasured. Fancy some Nurdles, Daddlums or even a bit of indoor rifle shooting while supping beer and enjoying some old world charm? Check out this blog: Shove it, Chuck it, Toss it...

It includes a map, so you can see if there are some in your area.

[coppinpr]

We have a rare one in Lewes, generaly know as "Toads". Its correct name is "Toad in the Hole". There is a league with three divisions and it is becoming more popular every year with pub teams all over East Sussex trying to join the league. The first photo is of a full "toads" table, although the league game is played with a simple one hole lead-topped table seen in photo two.

Toad in the hole is a pub game, involving throwing brass coins at a lead topped table with a hole in the middle. A variation of this game has been played in pubs in East Sussex, UK, the 'hole' being in the centre of the lead which is on top of a wooden table. Toad in the hole is a more refined version of the coin-throwing game Pitch penny.

The only known league in the country is based in East Sussex, and has three divisions, involving roughly 21 teams based in pubs around the county. There is also a major "International Competition", run by Lewes Lions Club and held in Lewes every year.

The game itself involves throwing four brass coins or "toads" from the same distance as a dart board, to a square toad table, made of wooden legs and with a lead surface. If a toad goes down the hole it scores 2 points, or if it lands on the top it scores 1. If it hits the back of the table, or falls off it is void, so a grand total of 8 points per turn can be scored. Scoring is performed in darts fashion, playing from 31 down. The first competitor throws 2 toads, with their opponent then throwing 3, and from then on they throw all 4, until they reach scores of less than four, wherein only the number of toads equal to the required finishing score may be thrown. Like darts you must finish exactly - scoring more causes you to "bust".

For the last two years the Laughing Fish have won the league, but the game is getting a lot more competitive with teams trying ever harder to improve.

[arrgee]

There is a popular Pub Game in Oxfordshire called Aunt Sally. The text below is from the Oxford & District Aunt Sally Association.

Aunt Sally is played by players throwing batons at a wooden skittle known as a doll and goes back at least as far as the 17th Century. It may have been introduced by Royalist soldiers during the English Civil war when Charles set up court in Oxford. It is one of those pub games which is played only in a very confined locale and hardly at all outside of this area. In the case of Aunt Sally, the location is Oxfordshire and despite being restricted only to pubs in and around Oxford it is a very popular game indeed which is taken very seriously by regulars and for which there are numerous leagues of some longevity.

Theory ascribes Aunt Sally as a development of a game which was essentially a humane version of a barbaric blood sport called "throwing at cocks". In this horrible pastime a cock was tied by one leg to a stake in the ground and the participants would then pay for a turn at throwing a "cok-steles" (small club) at the bird. Whoever killed the bird got to take it home for dinner. If the bird's leg was broken, the sad creature would be supported on sticks until the bitter end. Joseph Strutt noted in 1801 that humane versions of this had been seen as fairground amusements wherein the cock was replaced by a wooden replica and people paid a small sum to attempt to hit it. He thought that this had died out but this theory believes it persisted and became Aunt Sally.
A second theory concocted, is that Aunt Sally is merely an extension of a vulgar misogynist fairground pursuit. It is apparent that the doll used to be dressed up to resemble an old maid and no doubt it was thought to be amusing to chuck sticks at the ugly looking Aunt Sally doll. Quite possibly the game started to be played in a few pubs where it began to be taken more seriously.

In Aunt Sally, the single white stubby skittle, about 6 inches high and 2 and 3/4 inches in diameter, is called "dolly" and the round-ended projectiles, of which there are six, are 18 inches long, 2 inches in diameter and are called "sticks". The doll is positioned on top of a swivel which is inserted into a hollow rod (the "iron") driven into the earth so that the top is two and a half feet above the ground and the players throw the sticks at it from behind a line known as the "hockey" which is 10 yards from the iron. Each turn consists of six throws and a 'doll' is only counted as long as the stick hits the doll before the iron. Normal league play has two teams each consisting of eight players and three legs or "horses" are played. Each horse consists of each member of each team having one turn so that each team makes 48 throws.

[wembleylion]

This post reminds me of visiting a pub somewhere in the Norfolk outback in the 1960's which was just a converted house.
The wife and I had just moved up to Norfolk and a group of friends were visiting from London so we decided to find a real old country pub.
Once found the first surprise was that we had to collect our drinks from the kitchen door and then go into what had been the front room to drink them. The room was long and narrow and there were old church pews down each side with scrubbed wooden tables in the centre. At one end was a piano and at the other end, in the corner next to the fire, was a small but heavy black oak armchair with a hole in the centre of the seat. This chair caused a bit of hilarity, as you can imagine, but my mate Richard chose to sit on it. A little later three old boys came in with their drinks, sat down and just stared at Richard. Eventually one old boy went out and returned with the landlady who asked Richard to move so that the old boys could play 'Pot Penny'. The old boys started playing and and a few of us asked to join in, to which they agreed and we all had a great evening.
The winner of the round took all the pennys that had been thrown and to add to the fun the pennys were collected in a blue and white enamel chamber pot which lived in a compartment beneath the hole in the seat.

John

[coppinpr]

There is a popular Pub Game in Oxfordshire called Aunt Sally

It's unlikely this is a humane version of "Throwing at Cocks" as "Aunt Sally" was definitely being played as early as 1560 in the same form as it is today and the cock game was still practised 200 years after that.
There are two definitions for the term "Aunt Sally"
1. a pub game played mostly in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties
2. any person or thing set up for ridicule
I wonder which definition came first

I may be totally wrong but I believe female scarecrows are called aunt Sally's (God! I woke up next to a few of those when I was younger )

[pennymachines]

The Three Horseshoes in Wareham, Norfolk has a kind of roulette wheel, called a twister, attached to the ceiling which could be used to settle who pays for the next round.

Played at the Pub: facts and figures on the pub games of Britain
Arthur Taylor - Played at the Pub: The Pub Games of Britain

[jingle]

We have a rare one in Lewes, generaly know as "Toads". Its correct name is "Toad in the Hole". There is a league with three divisions and it is becoming more popular every year with pub teams all over East Sussex trying to join the league. The first photo is of a full "toads" table, although the league game is played with a simple one hole lead-topped table seen in photo two.

toads2.jpg

toads 3.JPG

Toad in the hole is a pub game, involving throwing brass coins at a lead topped table with a hole in the middle. A variation of this game has been played in pubs in East Sussex, UK, the 'hole' being in the centre of the lead which is on top of a wooden table. Toad in the hole is a more refined version of the coin-throwing game Pitch penny.

The only known league in the country is based in East Sussex, and has three divisions, involving roughly 21 teams based in pubs around the county. There is also a major "International Competition", run by Lewes Lions Club and held in Lewes every year.

The game itself involves throwing four brass coins or "toads" from the same distance as a dart board, to a square toad table, made of wooden legs and with a lead surface. If a toad goes down the hole it scores 2 points, or if it lands on the top it scores 1. If it hits the back of the table, or falls off it is void, so a grand total of 8 points per turn can be scored. Scoring is performed in darts fashion, playing from 31 down. The first competitor throws 2 toads, with their opponent then throwing 3, and from then on they throw all 4, until they reach scores of less than four, wherein only the number of toads equal to the required finishing score may be thrown. Like darts you must finish exactly - scoring more causes you to "bust".

For the last two years the Laughing Fish have won the league, but the game is getting a lot more competitive with teams trying ever harder to improve.

Coppin this frog game looks rare
But is actually very common
There's one at every large antiques fair
They may have copied them tho

[treefrog]

Yes you see them on eBay all the time. Often described as French

[coppinpr]

The game as played in Lewes never uses the ornate stand always the lead topped single hole type scoring 2 pts for in the hole and 1 point for on the table without hitting the back plate,scores like darts counting down to an exact finish