Ads not shown when logged in
Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 36

Thread: Bar Billiards, anyone?

  1. #11
    Inndigestion Strongers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    The Sunshine Coast
    Posts
    1,921

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Maldenman View Post
    Having just had a look through those rules, the game seems fairly straightforward, so I may well have a go next time I see a table (providing there aren't too many people about!).
    In Chester recently I saw a Bagatelle table, similar but with a curved end and more upright pins. It's good to see these traditional old games still surviving in the electronic age, I recall one from my youth with nine small skittles set on a plinth which you had to knock over by swinging a small ball on a chain in a circular motion around an upright pole, anyone know this game?
    Also, Lewes pubs have a rather robust game, I think it is called "bat and trap"?
    I remember playing table skittles about twenty years ago in a pub near Rye on my family’s annual pilgrimage to the darts week at Camber Sands.

    Lots of pubs down here in Sussex have Toad-in-the-hole game, but I’ve never seen Bat and Trap. I have been into the Bat and Ball in Brighton which is a dump.
    WE ARE THE BREADMEN - UP THE BEES

  2. #12
    Get some gravy on it. Maldenman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Motspur Park or whichever pub I happen to be in at the time.
    Posts
    943

    Default

    You're quite right Strongers, Bat and Trap is another game, more Kent I believe. Toad in the Hole is the one I saw in Lewes, which required evasive action to be taken by drinkers too near the action!

  3. #13
    Inndigestion Strongers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    The Sunshine Coast
    Posts
    1,921

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Maldenman View Post
    Oh, ok Al, thought it might have some sort of archaic quaint old name! Table skittles rings a bell though.

    Without wishing to go too far off topic, I also recently encountered a London 5s dartboard, where all numbers are divisible by 5, and repeat around the board, ie 5 10 15 and 20. I assume the bull remains at 25. The game starts from 505.

    Anyone remember the old Manchester dartboard, nicknamed a "log-end"?
    I played on a leg end board in a pub in Gillingham last year and I saw a ‘fives’ board during a pub crawl along the east end of the Central Line.

    I decided to stay in the Gillingham pub until I had hit a bullseye, which took me half an hour because I’m crap.
    WE ARE THE BREADMEN - UP THE BEES

  4. #14
    I'll stay on me own
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Nottingham
    Posts
    1,696

    Default

    I watched a game of Bat and trap being played at the Sondes Arms in Selling Kent,if i can remember right it is played outside and the bowler tries to knock a peice of wood down if he misses the person batting places the ball on the wood and hits it then wacks the ball.

    This was all back in the early 80s and i might have got the wrong game.

  5. #15
    Get some gravy on it. Maldenman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Motspur Park or whichever pub I happen to be in at the time.
    Posts
    943

    Default

    No you haven't got it wrong Al, that's the game.

  6. #16
    This Space For Hire gillhalfpint's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    West Midlands
    Posts
    1,531

    Default

    We had a game at rallies that I thought was bat and trap. 2 small pieces of wood on the ground in a cross so the end of the top piece stuck up in the air. With your wood bat, you hit the piece on the ground at the raised end, then when it spun into the air, you wacked it with the bat.

    We played things like that, and welly wanging outdoors along with horseshoes round pegs.
    Alcohol doesn't solve problems .... but then again, neither does milk.

  7. #17
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    5,588

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Al 10000 View Post
    The game with the pole and small skittles on a table is called Table Skittles,i used to play for a pub team in a league.

    It was quite a popular game in the Nottingham and Ilkeston areas
    I think it's also known as "Devil among the Tailors", I used to play it, badly, in this pub.

  8. #18
    This Space For Hire
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Oscillating between Surrey and York
    Posts
    923

    Default

    I used to play bar billiards a lot in my youth, but rarely see it nowadays although I do know of one table not far away. Yes it was mainly a Southern game, although occasionally found further afield. In the Midlands tended to be more table skittles or 'Devil among the Tailors', apart from the much larger free-thrown game in Northamptonshire and its environs, which can also still be found. From Hampshire westwards was alley skittle (nine pins) country, while I believe that there used to be an even larger London skittles game. throwing a 'cheese' about 15 inches in diameter at full size skittles, but I never managed to see it. I have played East London '5s' darts, and certainly seen, if not played, someof the various versions without doubles and/or trebles in the West Midlands and Manchester. Other odd games I have encountered include quoits and various versions of swinging a ring on a string onto a horn or other target. And whatever happened to shove ha'penny?
    On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement

  9. #19
    Pussy Galore No 1 Oggwyn Trench's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Nearer than you think
    Posts
    1,502

    Default

    What appears to be a Bar Blliards table has appeared in the back room of the Old Fighting Cocks , could not investigate further as the place was rammed due to the RATT beer festival , i will have a proper look next week
    Theres a Man with a Mullet going Mad with a Mallet in Millets !

  10. #20
    Glass Half Empty
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    SW London
    Posts
    208

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pangolin View Post
    Yes it was mainly a Southern game, although occasionally found further afield
    I believe bar billiards was originally imported from Belgium, and had its heyday in about the 1930s. There are tables dotted around the place, though these tend to be concentrated in the areas where there are bar billiards leagues, which are mainly in the South (the furthest North seems to be Northants). I understand quite a lot of the tables in these areas are actually owned by the local leagues, who use pubs or clubs to host them. Apparently whilst they used to worry about the game dying out by virtue of players dwindling, or tables disappearing, they are now more worries about running out of places to put them, because of the rate of pub closures, and because pub gastrification almost always results in getting rid of the table.
    'Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable' - Python

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •