Playing Marbles

[Runningman 142]

Information please from those of you who played marbles on those old flag stone pavements where holes on the corners and in between adjacent flags were the locations we aimed for.

Do you remember the types of marbles, Blood Alleys, White Glass with a red streak running through them, Ballys or Belleys large ball bearings.

Some were called Stonks and were made out of plaster.

 

4 players was the normal.Before you started you shouted Fogs first go ( first to roll ) No Stonks, you couldn't roll a Stonk. No Ballys allowed ( no ball bearings to be rolled ) No shove ems ( Not a long push with your finger ) No danks ( You couldn't hit another players marble ) 

The marble was rolled and who got nearest to the hole played first followed by other players in order of nearness to the hole. The first player then collected all the marbles and rolled them towards the hole and then started potting them into the hole.

A curled index finger was used mainly. He potted until he missed sinking a marble into the hole. Number 2 took over and so on.

The player to pot the last marble  won all the marbles.

I will mention ' Swappems ' You could swap a good marble if you lost it in the game.

 

Bit of confusion, yes, but I am thinking back 65 years + 

 

Quite a number of threads re Marbles on this Forum !

Edited January 7, 2021 by Runningman
Added text

[Thorpist 72]

I read this with laughter thinking how flipping old is this guy, glad you revealed it at the end.

It reads as a foreign language to young people.

[Kidorry 189]

I think marbles was the posh name because we called them, mabs. It was amazing how the mabs season just started at school. One day you were skimming cigarette cards and the next day playing mabs.

[bassett one 447]

yes and they say,some mabs are expensive to buy today,times were simple,but with footie,cricket,mabs,bonfire collecting,stretch legs widening by throwing a knife,god knows what H&S would think of that,tiggy,tracking,biking,fishing ect,ect,notice one thing all outside in the fresh air and all using your imagination,yep good days.

[blackhill 10]

Wow bassett one. Forgot about the "stretch legs" game using a knife,  Had some good fun playing that game with my friends on Deerlands Ave. Played on the grass verges .  Didn't you throw the knife in the centre of your opponents legs to seal a win? Them were the days.

[carosio 185]

The patterns in marbles were of endless fascination. Not sure who used to make them. Here's a firm who makes display marbles:

 

https://tuffnellglass.com/contents/en-uk/d29536_Handmade-Marbles-.html

[Blackburnrod 13]

I started playing mabs when I went to Sharrow Lane Juniors in 1946 aged 7+. I can't remember where my first marbles came from, probably a pack of a dozen bought from Allott's newsagents. All the terminology alluded to in the original post was familiar to me. I was it seems quite skillful, playing in the schoolyard behind the toilet block, and on the cobbles of Franklin Street. By the time I left for King Teds after 11+ I had amassed over 800 mabs, which I gave to my mother, then a teacher in the Junior school. to distribute amongst her pupils. Happy days!

[Runningman 142]

Hi folks and thanks for your response

 

It is my intention when this bug has disappeared to contact  academics at either Sheffield or Hallam University and perhaps the Local History section of the Central Library, people who study / collect stories relating to Sheffield Culture and pass on the information given.

 

Keep your stories coming please !

[Jim117 72]

Hi all. Yeah remember playing mabs in the 70’s. Either trying to pot them in a hole or another variation where you’d try hitting your opponent’s mab. Most vivid memory though was being round at my mates house one rainy day while his parents were out. We were having a war between our rival airfix armies which consisted of setting them up and taking turns throwing one of the big mabs (remember them?) to knock them down. Combat got increasingly intense until a particularly exuberant throw on my part ricocheted off the turret of a Dinky centurion tank and hit the screen of the new colour telly with a resounding clang.Close examination revealed a chip in the screen so, ashen faced, the troops were packed away and we retreated to the attic and the plausible deniability of the train set. Regarding ball bearings. At Annes Road school footballs were banned after the headmasters window got busted one too many times. After a few days of moping around the playground one of the lads came up with a solution. Namely a ball bearing of about 3 or 4 inches in diameter and a pair of stout boots. This projectile hurtling across the playground was apparently not a problem as it never got higher than shin or kneecap height and thus was incapable of breaking a window .

[trastrick 866]

 I don't think anybody has mentioned that the big mabs were called "bottlies" or "glassies" and were banned from games where precious blood allys were used.

 

No stonks, no bottlies, no ballbarians.

Edited January 10, 2021 by trastrick

[echo beach 573]

On 08/01/2021 at 08:32, Thorpist said:

I read this with laughter thinking how flipping old is this guy, glad you revealed it at the end.

It reads as a foreign language to young people.

Afraid it's also a foreign language to me and I go back a lot  further than Runningman.

Must have missed out somewhere in my childhood!

 

echo.

[hillsbro 28]

1 hour ago, echo beach said:

Afraid it's also a foreign language to me and I go back a lot  further than Runningman...

I know how you feel, echo beach, I can't remember any of it either. Are we losing our marbles? 🤨