I have a granddaughter who has developed an interest in "Taws" or Marbles . After 70 yrs I'm damned if I can remember the different types of games played. We used to play in the street gutters going to school , also at times with a circle of string and on hard ground around a depression in the ground. What were the rules and how did one win the Taws of the fellow players in each type of game . Any other games you are welcome to elaborate on .
I have a reputation to uphold here!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

I returned to the UK in 2005 for the 1st time in 40+ years. It was September, I was in London and as I was walking along the street, my eyes lit up at the sight of som many huge conkers just lying there in the gutters. My wife could not understand why I was stuffing them into my pockets, filling my back pack and trying to get her to carry her fair share as well.We rushed back to my daughter's house to share the booty with the grandkids, imagine my horror that not one of them knew how to play conkers although they did by the end of our stay.

It brought back so many memories such as how to put the hole through without a drill, or how to get the string through a small hole, indeed, getting suitable string.

I have searched high and low in Australia and cannot find horse chestnut trees.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1961

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Right, Mike, I'm not sure I can remember all the rules but I can get you a little along the way to upholding your grandfatherly honour and reputation! Your 'gutter' game was called 'Follows-on', the circle of string (or a circle drawn in the dust, or in chalk on a pavement) was 'Ringy', while the hole-in-the-ground game was known in our parts by the delicious name of 'Nuggy'. Ringy was the game most played in my day.

Each player put a taw in the ring then you all started from behind a given line, each in turn tossing his 'firer' towards the ring. This detemined the order of play from then on, the person getting nearest to the ring having first go, the second following after him and so on.

The objective was to knock as many taws out of the ring as you could, and those you kept. If, however, in knocking one or more taw out of the ring your firer remained within the ring you had two options: you could shout either 'stop off' or 'puts in'; in the first case you kept what you had knocked out plus your firer but you dropped out of the game; in the second case you put back the taw(s) you had knocked out, returned to the point from which you had fired and had another go, to try and do better (i.e. knock taws out and have your firer come out as well). In the latter event, you then immediately had another shot to try and knock more out, and this went on until either you failed or you knocked all the taws out in succession. You were allowed to fire at another person's firer so as to send him much further away from the ring (this tended to happen more when you played in partnership with someone else, so as to make sure, for example, that your partner was not dispatched in the same way, making his chances of getting taws out of the ring that much harder).

Your hand had to be absolutely still when you fired (using thumb and first finger). If you jerked your hand forward when firing you were guilty of 'fullocking', an offence punishable by a kind of summary execution known as 'mens'. One of the other players would stand with one foot hard up against your firer, then would kick that foot as hard as he could with the other foot. If he happened to be much practised at this art then your firer would be sent whizzing off to the edges of the universe, thus ensuring that for the next two or three shots you would present no danger (unless you were very lucky with a long shot) until you got near to the ring again - by which time the game could be all over.

I'm sure there were other 'refinements' in Ringy that I can't call to mind - but it's a start. Can't help you with the other two games, but I'll bet Terry or Derek Newiss can, when they see your posting.

Maybe we should have a taws tournament at the next Reunion?

Anyhow, it seems you are going to have to get in practice if you are really going to impress your grand-daughter. Best of luck!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

That's brilliant Doug. How did you remember after all this time.
The only rule I can remember was that, if you were playing against a big lad, he was allowed to make the rules up as he went on.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Pretty comprehensive, Doug.

A few ringy extras: when tossing your first go from the starting line you were allowed to use a larger taw (often called a poppie)to try to remove more from the ring for starters. (Bollies - ball-bearings - were not allowed although some turned up with glass taws the size of golf balls.) Or you could just aim to finish nearest. You could change your poppie for your preferred firer when it came to your second go.I have a recollection that if your opponent called "fats" when your taw stayed in the ring that there was some penalty. If you removed a taw from the ring, you had the option (if you called killer) of hitting (killing) an opponent's firer and putting him out of the game.We used to ban an habitual "fullocker" from playing. I suppose later in life we would have reduced that expression by some three characters.

I don't recall the rules of nuggy which wasn't as popular but I do recall there was a permitted shot where the player could push the taw with the forefinger of a closed hand.I think it was called a nudge.The game centred round a hollow in the ground (the nuggy)and you won if the other's taw went in the nuggy - either inadvertently or with your assistance. if you hit your opponent you had another go to try to hit him again and into the nuggy.

Follows-on I recall was usually between 2 players when there weren't enough lads to make up a good game of ringy.It was a bit like playing for snookers - something of a waiting game. One pitched his taw and the other followed trying to hit (or keep a distance from) his opponent. If you got too near you gave him an easier chance of hitting you. Having hit you once, he had a second attempt and if he succeeded he picked up your taw. Hence you didn't use your favourite firer in follows-on unless you had agreed to pay with any old taw. Sometimes the winner would insist that he chose from your collection.

In the yard at Eastwood there would be lots of games in progress at playtime. There was a trade in taws. 1 a penny; 2 a penny; sometimes 4. Bored with the playing one day, I wandered from one side of the yard to the other testing the market. I found that if I invested my penny and bought 4 by the shelters I could get a penny for 2 in the shed, thus doubling my capital. I did this once just to prove a suspicion that had developed in my immature mind, got bored and desisted thereafter. If I hadn't quit while I was winning I might have been up there with Tommy Holmes or Warren Bucket.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Freudian slip: for "Bucket" read "Buffett"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I thought you'd be able to fill one or two gaps in my recollections, Terry. 'Fats' I remember, though quite what it signified refuses to return... Of 'killer' I have no memory whatsoever. On the issue of the giant glass marbles (which surely had a name of their own - wasn't it 'a glassy'?), I now recall that if someone was threatening to blast your taw to kingdom-come you could swap it for a 'glassy' so that his taw would ricochet off it and very likely end up much further away than your own. It was one of those grey areas which inevitably led to disputes and even fights... Ah, those were the days! Does Mike now have enough information to go into training, do you think?

Sean, my secret is that I majored in Taw Science (my subsidiary was Matchbox Rugby)...

I am surprised to hear no mention of the highly prized 'blood alley' taw.
Does anyone remember 'Piggy stick' a street version of ‘Knur and spel’.
That was a game I loved and we used to play it on our ‘Holler’ till all light faded.
Someone early in this subject mentioned how the year seemed to be ordered by these ‘crazes’.
There was a time I seemed always to be 9 years old and my life was defined by these games and my comics and school was a place that taught us something in between these two more important places in my heart.
Suddenly I was in long trousers, I was 13 and life was not so certain and ordained again.
So much lost so little gained.

I don't know how you remember all the details after all that time. Thank you all for the splendid set of "Rules for Taws". This brought back lots of memories and now gives me a solid base to enforce proper conduct of the game when I challenge my eager grand-daughter. There is a shop at the small town of Sheffield here which makes and sells marbles including "Blood Alleys" . I will be along there shortly to stock up for the coming battles.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Mike, you and Mary showed us the very attractive wall paintings in Sheffield, but it was sneaky of you not to mention the 'blood alleys'. Shame on yer!

Sorry Shaun I meant Shaun (or was it Shawn?) not Sean - though the latter should suit you well if you're off to Ireland.

Doug

We played Ringy, Holey (never called Nuggy where I lived) and just plain Marbles (not called Follow-ons as far as I can remember but the same game) with equal regularity depending on the place and time and number of players interested. I loved all of them and played whenever I could.
For Ringy and Holey you needed flattish dusty hard-packed earth to play on and "the spare ground" behind the old Co-op by the side of the park was perfect. It even had a couple of permanent holes for Holey. Marbles we played anywhere, but especially in the gutter or along a lane on the way to and from school. I can't add much to the rules of Ringy provided by Doug and Terry, except that with us Doug's "mens" operation was a punishment, not for fullocking (we never used that term either), but for allowing a marble fired by someone else to hit your foot (or shoe if you wore one). As for Holey, our rules were as follows. From a line about 15 feet away from the hole (6 inches diam. 3 or 4 inches deep) you took it in turns and the nearest to the hole got first chance at forefinger nudging-in any of the marbles around the hole. You carried on until you missed when the next nearest had a go, and so on. The winner was the person who holed the last marble and he pocketed all the marbles in the hole. So there was some scope for strategy, for instance not holing the nearest marbles first and not leaving a distant marble too near to the hole for the next player if there was danger he might finish.
I remember blood-alleys which were very rare and worth ten or more ordinaries, and glass-alleys which were just bigger and worth two or three.
And I remember a cousin from Denaby who came to visit and had a fantastic technique for flicking marbles down like bullets from a hand with just the knuckle of his little finger in contact with the ground.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)