Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

SHOVEL BOARD.

The game of Shovel Board was once a very important national pastime, and was much played among fashionable people. Master Slender, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," makes a reference to the game, from which it would appear that Shovel Board was in Shakspere's time both popular and fashionable.

The game was formerly played upon a long, low table that usually stood in the large hall of a gentleman's house, but was soon adapted to smaller tables, and was indeed frequently played on the floor, the necessary limits being chalked out on the bricks. The following description of the game will be found applicable, whether it be played on the floor or on the orthodox table or board, it being premised that the space marked out on the floor should be about twenty-five or thirty feet in length and three feet in breadth, a space corresponding with the size of an ancient Shovel Board.

The tables on which the game is now played vary somewhat in length, but are usually three feet to three and a half feet wide. At one end of the table a line is drawn parallel with the edge, and three or four inches from it; at four feet distance another line is made over which it is necessary for the weight to pass when shoved or thrown. The players stand at the end of the table, opposite to the two lines above mentioned, each having four flat metal weights, which they alternately shove from them one at a time. The object of the play is to give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the mark nearest to the opposite edge of the table, but so as to keep it on the table. If the weight is shoved so that it hangs over the edge without falling, three are counted towards game; if between the line and edge, without hanging over, two are scored; if on the line one only is credited to the player. The game is usually eleven when two play, but when more than two are jointly concerned that number should be increased.

Shovel Board.

Those weights that glance off the side of the table, that do not pass the first line, or that fall off the table at the opposite edge, it will be seen do not score. It is sometimes allowed that all weights passing the first, or four-foot line, score one, instead of making it incumbent that the second line should be reached.

The following description of the game, which differs somewhat from the above, appears in the "English Cyclopædia":—"The origin of the game Shuffle, or Shovel Board, is doubtful; it has been practised for many generations ... and has lately been largely introduced into America.... The board, or alley, is thirty feet long by twenty inches wide, perfectly level, like a billiard table, and constructed of some wood which will not warp. Before commencing to play, it is sprinkled with fine sand, and five inches from each end a line is drawn across the board, parallel with the ends. Eight weights or pieces are required, divided into two sets of four each, and marked with distinctive features. The game is played by four people, two against two, one on either side standing at each end of the board. Twenty-one points have to be scored to win a game; each piece which lies over or inside the line, at the end of a round being 'in,' and scoring two points in favour of the side to which it belongs, whilst a piece partly projecting over the end of the board scores three points. Should no piece be 'in' at the end of a round, that nearest the line counts as one point, and a piece lying exactly on the line is counted 'in.' The players 'shuffle' alternately from each end of the board, the great object of each competitor being to 'shuffle' his own piece in, or drive his opponent's off the board."

SKITTLE CANNONADE.

The game of Skittle Cannonade, or Indian Skittle Pool, is a capital game for boys. It is in its higher development played on an ordinary billiard-table, but a bagatelle board will answer all the purpose, or it may even be played on a common dining-table, provided that round its edges are placed such cushions as are supplied with a Table Croquet set.

Plan of Skittle Cannonade.

Two white balls, one red, and one blue ball are used in the game, and five small skittles are placed in the centre of the board or table. The skittles are of different values, and are numbered as follows (as shown in the accompanying plan). The first opposite to the baulk is one, that to the right two, that opposite to the first, three, the one opposite to the second, four, and the centre skittle, five. The points are made by knocking down the skittles, as shown hereafter, each skittle knocked down counting points according to its number. In commencing to play, the red ball is placed as in the ordinary cannon game of billiards, the blue one beneath it, and the two white balls are retained for the two players who play first. The white balls should be played with alternately by the players, and no score is made except from a cannon, that is, the ball struck with the cue must hit some other ball before the skittle is knocked down; but it does not then matter by which ball the skittle or skittles are knocked down. The first player is bound to strike the red ball, and the second player the blue ball, but afterwards either ball may be struck at. A ball being knocked off the table, or into a pocket when a billiard-table is used, destroys all the points made by the stroke, and if the ball knocked off is either the red or blue ball it must be again placed as in starting the game. The skittles are replaced after every stroke, if necessary. Thirty-one points, neither more nor less, win the game; any one scoring beyond that number is dead and out of the game; or the survivor from amongst all the players wins the game if no one player scores the exact thirty-one required. Any player knocking down the four outside skittles, leaving only the centre one standing, wins the game, having made what is technically called "the royal." After each win a new game is started.

The player who first reaches either twenty-nine or thirty points has the right to stop scoring on his declaring to do so, and any point which he may subsequently make counts to the advantage or disadvantage, as the case may be, of the previous player. This right to stop scoring can only be exercised by one player in each game, and if he who first reaches the required number of points refuses to exercise that right, it passes to the next who attains the required number, and so on.

There is also another version of the game of Skittle Cannonade played on a board specially prepared, and the result of which depends entirely upon chance. A teetotum, as in the game of Cannonade, is used instead of balls and a cue, or sometimes a top is made to do duty for the teetotum. Nine specially-made skittles are used, each of which is placed on a spot inscribed with a number. When the skittles are placed, the top or teetotum is smartly spun at one corner of the board by each player alternately, and the scores are made according to the numbers which are laid bare by the skittles being knocked off them. The great point in the game is to give the top or teetotum a smart jerk when spinning it, so as to make it retain its power of movement as long as possible. This description of the game is far inferior to the version described above, but the whole of the materials form a pretty toy, and much amusement for the youngsters is to be obtained from the game.

French and English.

SLATE GAMES.

There are a few simple slate games which have been in the past, and no doubt will be in the future, the means of affording innocent amusement to many a youngster. They are none of them very elaborate, are usually intended for only two players, and are best grouped together under the one general heading of Slate Games. The first to be described is the game known as

Birds, Beasts, and Fishes.—Two boys take their slates, and each one writes down the first and last letters of the name of some bird, beast, or fish, first stating from which category the name is selected, and puts a cross for each of the intermediate letters. For example, A elects to write down the name of a beast, and marks on his slate as follows—Hxxxe; B will perhaps select a fish, and mark on his slate Gxxxxxn; they then exchange slates, and each tries to guess the name of the beast or fish indicated, and fills up the blanks accordingly. It is evident that those indicated above are respectively Horse and Gudgeon.

French and English.—A slate should be divided into three divisions, the top and bottom divisions each having a small compartment marked off therein, as shown in the annexed diagram. One of the two end divisions should be allotted to the English and the other to the French, and marks put therein to represent the soldiers of the respective nations. Each player having provided himself with a well-sharpened pencil, the game is played as follows:—The players decide the order of play, and he first selected, being supposed to be English, places the point of his pencil at the spot marked in the smaller compartment of the English division of the slate, draws it quickly across the slate in the direction of the opposing army. The pencil will, of course, leave a line marking its track, and all the men of the opposite side, through which the track passes, count as dead. Each player plays alternately, and he wins who first kills all the men on the opposite side. The track of the pencil must be rapidly made, and must be either straight or curved; any track in which there is an angle does not count. Sometimes the players turn their heads or close their eyes when making the track.

Noughts and Crosses, or Tit-Tat-To.—This game, when played out of school-hours, should be wound up with the following rhyme by him who wins the game:—

Tit-Tat-To, my last go;

Three jolly butchers, all of a row.

"When played out of school?" some readers will say. Yes; this qualification is necessary, for it is to be feared and deprecated that this game, as well as that of "Birds, Beasts, and Fishes," is frequently played in school-hours, to while away the weary time that ought to be devoted to the solution of arithmetical or algebraical problems. These slate games are undoubtedly little boys' games, but many are the big boys who indulge in them surreptitiously, if not openly.

Noughts and Crosses.

The game of Tit-Tat-To is played on a figure, similar to the annexed, made on an ordinary slate. The players alternately mark in the figure—the one a cross, and the other a nought; he who first obtains a row either horizontally, perpendicularly, or diagonally wins the game, and calls "the three jolly butchers, all of a row." The object of each of the players is equally to obtain such a row, and to prevent his opponent from obtaining one.