“SHOVE HALFPENNY”

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 13

“SHOVE HALFPENNY”

A SUPERIOR PASTIME HOW Ills PLAYED A man who once played at football for his university has, in a work of reference, given bis present recreations as “ darts and shove halfpenny.” The entry has been met with undue scepticism. The dart is familiar in the less fashionable public houses of Manchester. But shove halfpenny, a far superior pastime, is not only little known, but despised, misunderstood, or denounced as a gamble. In the knowledge of this ancient and elegant game the South excels the North (writes in the ‘Manchester Guardian 1 ). Myself, 1 learned the game in Oxford, and in my biased regard the Oxford City Shove Halfpenny Association will always be, as it were, the M.C.C. of the game. You will find it played all over Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Buckingham. I have enjoyed a good game in the Royal Oak at Marlborough, and I am told that one ol the finest players now living is a fat landlady in Berks. The early history of the sport is unknown. The “shove halfpenny upon tho tombstones ” which Brought Stevenson’s Ben Gunn to disaster must have been a rude, unrefined business. A player once bitterly told me: “Y 7 ou might as well play on a tombstone as on the board at the Scotch Thistle.” The shove halfpenny hoard is of oak; slate boards, once common, have almost disappeared. Many boards began their careo las doors. I have seen traces of lock or bolt on tho underside. The board should be, a good 2ft long and a foot or more wide, and the upper surface is unbelievably polished. A line is drawn, usually by incision, parallel with and some 4in from the bottom of the board. This line is called “the bottom line.” Nino similar parallel lines are cut at intervals of about tho width of a penny piece. The nine spaces are known as “ beds.” and are reckoned from tho top end, like oarsmen—“ top bed, second bed . . . eighth bed, bottom bed.” A line down the whole length of either side of the hoard, about an inch •from the edge, is called the “ bedstead.” Polish for six months, and the board is ready for play. The halfpennies used are five in number. but are not halfpennies. One side of them is rubbed quite smnr'b, and to do this to our own currency would be a felony—l know not whether hich treason or forgerv. The coins trad’tionally used are Louis Napoleons, hist about the size of a halfpenny. Whether they should be all of one 'weight and thickness. or various, is a nice point, later discussed.' Each coin in turn is laid on the bottom edge of the board, clear of the bedsteads, and is propelled by a push of the hand, usually by the ball of the thumb. The object is to leave the coin lying in a bed, clear of any line. Obviously a solitary coin, careering unham-

pered, is not likely tostop so obligingly, and the chief art of the game is to play one halfpenny upon another so as to leave as many as possible safely embedded when the full five have been shoved. Each player then shoves the five halfpennies in turn, and at the end of his turn he marks the beds in which ho has scored with a chalk mark on the bedstead. His opponent then takes back tho coins, shoves them afresh, and re-1 cords his score. He wins who first has ! had three halfpennies in every bed—-twenty-seven chalks in all. But if, with three chalks already made in a bed, you leave in a fourth halfpenny, your opponent can claim the point from you for his own, unless bo. too. has filled j the bed. The first player opens with ] only three coins, else tho start would be ' too great an advantage. “ When the halfpenny rests in a. bed without having touched any other halfpenny it is said to have been “drawn.” To “ draw the top bed ” is reckoned the height of felicity. You cannot, of 1 '■•nurse, count on drawing; but a skilful player controls length well enough to land a coin somewhere near tbo bed | which he wants to fill. A coin just short of the bed is “ou the doorstep.” If it cuts, but has not passed, the far j limiting lino of the bed it “gives a lav.” Another halfpenny can then be slaved to fill the bed. either by stopping snort in contact with tho “lay,” nr bv “edging” tho first coin in—a dclicato shot—or by some more recondite method. Often two or three coins are needed and used to build up tbo lay for an important bed. Tbo straightforward game needs length and extreme accuracy of direr-j tion : even an easy lay “in top” is not 3 simple matter to score off. Where the board is fast and the halfpennies much of the same weight—conditions which mirists think needful for the correct game—length and accuracy, with a knowledge of angles, are the chief mat- ■ ter. But on most boards two coins will be heavier than the average, and one—, the “kicker”—a good deal lighter., Now. on an ordinary board, a coin played straight on to another of like weight will stop dead. But a heavier coin played on to a lighter will slide on. and a light coin played on a. heavy will actually recoil. Obviously the differing halfnennies make possible trick shots, which increase the variety of tho game. On a really fast board, however, the fancy shots are almost _ impossible, though a nice discrimination must be shown in picking a halfpenny for the next shot, and the expert studies and uses the grain of the board. Such is the “poor man’s billiards, widely played in tbo south with enjoyment. sportsmanship, and no_ taint of gambling: a rich and well-varied game, changing from hoard to board and from , day to day—many boards will play faster on a hot day. Darts, played in, Manchester with astonishing accuracy, is a comparatively cold pastime. _ Darts and discs differ little. It is a pity that the nobler game is ousted by a gloomy and inferior practice; and this exposition must close with a protest against the neglect of a captivating game.