Games Room. Table-top Games. FAQ - Our best quality games. Games for 1 player. Pub Games. Giant Tower, Jenga, Tumble Tower. Football Tables. Giant Chess and Draughts. Shuffle Puck. It seems that for many centuries right through to the present day, there have always been a bunch of different skittles games being played.
Information is sketchy until the s but the game of Closh or Cloish frequently appears and later on the game of Loggats turns up. Joseph Strutt tells us that the skittles were often made from bones and in a play from , one of the characters has the immortal line "I'll cleave you from the skull to the twist and make nine skittles of thy bones". One of the many variations of the game came from Holland and was known as Dutch Pins.
You can see from the picture that the balls have holes and it is this game that is believed to have been taken to America where it eventually became the ubiquitous "Ten Pin Bowling". Note also the use of a Kingpin and the fact that the player is "tipping" - playing from point blank range Some pictures of the 18th and 19th centuries show a player throwing or rolling the ball or cheese while standing right next to the pin diamond.
This is usually not a mistake or an illustrative convenience; in fact many games allowed the players to first aim from distance and then take their final throw at point blank range. This last technique is called "tipping" and this form of the game may still be seen today in France.
Come the early s, Strutt lists the following five as the primary forms of the game:. It is interesting that skittles and nine pins were definitely different games at this time Nine-pins was played at an agreed distance and was a test to see who could knock down all the pins in the least number of throws. Skittles, by contrast, involved both throwing at distance and "tipping" see above and was simply scored by counting the pins toppled, the winner being the first to reach a certain total.
This is a picture of Skittles from - J. Wheble Warwick Sq. Below is from Pyne dated Dutch Pins also involved both rolling from distance as well as "tipping" but was distinguished by the use of finger holes in the balls, by the pins being taller and thinner and by the use of a kingpin - a single skittle that stood higher than the others and was usually required to be knocked over first. The black and white photo from Holland to the right was kindly sent in by John Penny.
Note the distinctive hole in the balls - this must have been perhaps unsurprisingly the game of Dutch Pins. Virtually all forms of modern English Skittles except one feature projectiles being propelled from one end of an alley in an effort to knock down nine pins stood in a square at the other end. One of the most marked divisions is in the method for actually throwing the balls or cheeses.
In London, the heavy cheese is flung full toss directly at the skittles, over in the West country balls are rolled down the full length of the alley while in the midlands the Long Alley game usually requires the cheese or ball to bounce a single time before hitting the skittles. Western Alley Skittles is the most popular and basic version of Alley Skittles wherein 9 skittles are arranged in a square at the end of an alley. The alley is around 24 feet long and each turn starts with all the skittles standing and consists of three throws down the alley.
If all the pins are knocked down, then they are all reset. So the maximum score in one turn is There are variations from town to town and even pub to pub as to the further details.
For instance in Dorset, back boards are installed at the end of each alley. This allows players to use the trusty "Dorset flop" technique wherein the back board is used to 'launch' a player from squatting position down the alley at which point both hands propel the ball towards the skittles! In the Bridport League, only the middle pin is re-erected once all nine have been toppled giving a maxiumum score of Balls can be made from a variety of hardwoods although Lignum Vitae is the traditional favourite.
Many leagues these days insist upon heavy rubber balls. This author's research has discovered 4 main types of pin as follows:. It has been handed down the generations in North America for more than a century.
The game consists of a several small rooms laid out on a board - designs vary somewhat. Skittles are positioned amongst the rooms and a top is then sent spinning from one end of the table in an effort to topple as many of the skittles as possible. Each skittle scores or sometimes deducts differing numbers of points and success is largely a matter of luck.
As the author has discovered more and more about the game it's apparent that a great deal of uncertainty reigns, not least as to precisely what the game should be called. In the USA, it is somewhat confusingly known simply as "Skittles" - this is possible because Americans don't play the original game of Skittles or Nine Pins - only ten pin bowling, it's direct ancestor.
One person wrote to say that the game was called "Racketeer" while another wrote to say that he was attempting to restore an old game believed to be French from around and that the English owner from whom it had been bought referred to it as "Devil amongst the Tinkers". More research has established that the game is alive and still popular in France, Belgium and Holland. Then, in Aug , an auction house wrote with a picture of an exquisite gaming table featuring a wealth of different games.
The table is from France during the reign of Charles X, dated approximately One of the games shown on the right was the most beautiful Table a Toupie game with multiple intricate brass fitments and little bells to ring as well as skittles to topple. It is a piece that would have certainly originally belonged to French nobility.
These rules merely give a typical example of the regulations laid down by skittles leagues across England rather than being taken from one particular place. Nine Pin Bristol Style Skittles - 5 inch. Leisure Portable Skittle Alley with ball return gully. Premium Rosewood Skittles Set. West Country Skittles Description The nine wooden skittles are ten inches high and shaped like a stunted cigar, with the diameter in the middle being typically 4.
Balls are traditionally made from heavy wood nowadays rubber or resin and any size greater than a tennis ball and less than a cannonball can be used five inches diameter should be about right. A full size Skittles alley is usually around six feet wide and normally made of wood although other surfaces can be used.
The distance from the throwing line to the front skittle is not usually less than 24 feet but in some areas can be significantly more than 30 feet. Sometimes one of the pins, known as a kingpin, is slightly larger than the others - it's position would normally be in the middle or at the front. Play The nine skittles are arranged in a square at the end of an alley so that the sides of the square are diagonal to the edges of the alley.
A typical square size would be 28 inches from the middle of the front skittle to the middle of the rear skittle. Each turn starts with all the skittles standing and consists of three throws down the alley.
The ball must be rolled the length of the alley and not thrown. If the first or second throw is a "sticker" wherein no skittles are left standing, they are all reset. So the maximum score in one turn is twenty seven. In areas where a kingpin is used, the rules vary but the general tendency is not to score a throw until the kingpin is toppled.
So it would be theoretically possible to knock down the other 8 skittles with three balls and score no points.
Normally the game is played by two teams who play a series of legs. In a leg, each player is allowed one turn of three balls. The total number of points scored by each member of the team are added up and the team with the highest score wins the leg. In some areas, the team who manages to win five legs first wins the match.
There are no standard rules for singles.
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