What outdoor games did you play when you were growing up

[Granma]

"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man"

[AMR67]

We spent many happy hours down on Hartley Brook. Making dens, cardboard slide in the summer (nicking the cardboard boxes from Oldfields ice cream factory), damming up the brook  to make a big pond to wade in. Then the council installed an adventure playground with access just off Hartley Brook Avenue with massive stainless steel slide from the top area to the bottom level. Good days indeed.

[Back9Kev]

Was it only in Eckington that the game of Kingy Wingy was played

Nobody else seems to have heard of it

 

http://www.streetgames.co.uk/games/ball/kingy

[NewBiz]

Dobby 123 done you ( a variation on hide & seek) go carts, building dens, roller skates, climbing trees, made-up assault courses, skateboards, shooting home made bows and arrows, stunt kites, damming streams, murder ( a combative game played on swings ) who could jump off swings at the highest point/go the furthest,  sliding on cardboard sheets down steep banks, making fires, climbing the sheer face of the local quarry, fishing for sticklebacks and tadpoles, knocking on doors and running away, belonging to 'famous five' style clubs and 'investigating' crimes ( we were convinced a local man had murdered his wife at one bit, such was the over-excitability of our imaginations!) tiggy, on and off ground, looking after our imaginary horses, riding our bikes with bits of string for 'reins' and a variety of other made-up games which involved heavy use of our imaginations.

 

Happy days indeed

[zach]

On 08/05/2019 at 14:26, Top Cats Hat said:

If this question is asked in 20 years time will people answer Call of Duty, Minecraft and FIFA19? 😱

Very true. 

 

I also hear young people talking about how many friends they have. It soon becomes clear that they are people online and they never actually met and spoken to each other in person. I always remember one mate of ours, we used to think he was a bit odd as he enjoyed staying in and watching telly!

 

I must be getting old...or got there!

[francypants]

Two balls  and  kiss catch.

[mickyboy]

We used to play "Knitting Nancy" a complicated game involving a passing urchin, a stray dog, a jam jar an orange box, some string and a tin of Zubes or failing that a bottle of Iodine.

What larks.

Used to play havoc with the neighbours rhubarb though.

[horribleblob]

Stretch/Splits (with a sheath knife, like Longcol – post #18), Hide and Seek (on the local common – it could take all day), Hot Rice, British Bulldog (the same way Bilge played it – post #14), and in complete contrast: Kiss Chase.

[catmiss]

The lads used to tie neighbours’ front doors together then knock on both doors and watch , from a safe distance, the struggle and both parties have to walk round from the back struggling to undo all the knots . There was a short lived cessation when the local Bobby observed all from the police box at the bottom of the street

[jonnyhonda]

On 08/05/2019 at 14:40, Longcol said:

Kick can, gatey (footie in the street using gates as goals), marbles, conkers, husky fusky, hide and seek, commando's, cricket, stretch (involved a sheath knife). Used to fly kites on the field at the back of our house.

Still have a scar on my right knee after a game of stretch  in the 60's  went badly wrong ! 

We also used to play a game that I think we just called 'Sticks'. Two pieces of chopped wood  (perhaps 8 inches or so long) would be propped up against a wall about 6 inches apart and a third piece balanced on top of them (like cricket bails) . One person would stand about 6 or 7 feet away and throw a tennis ball at the 'sticks' and try to scatter them. If that person wasn't successful then the next one would try and so on until someone managed it. This is where my memory becomes a little hazy but I think the idea was that the rest of the players had to try and replace the 'sticks' without being hit by the ball which the successful scatterer would then be  throwing at them. 

Maybe someone else has a clearer memory lol. This was in the 60's at High Green.