Games people play

posted by John Winn

 My eye was caught by a letter in the November edition of the Cricketer  on the subject of the  pocket cricket game 'Owzthat'.

Those of our readers who wouldn't know an x-box from an egg box may recall from their childhood the original version of the game  which was stored in a small tin box and consisted of two hexagonal shaped dice, one of which was rolled to determine the outcome of each delivery and should it land on 'owzthat' the second die was rolled to determine whether the batsman was out and if so, the mode of dismissal. Simple stuff and purely a game of chance but certainly popular amongst my secondary school peers when, towards the end of term, we were allowed to play games in lessons: chess for the cerebral, battleships for future military leaders and Owzthat for cricket lovers were typical.

The Cricketer article which opened up the correspondence described an upgraded version now on the market comprising six dice, three for each batsman and bowler. After correcting the spelling, as is often the case in Yorkshire the h in how is redundant so it is Owzthat not Howzthat, as the magazine spelled it, Brian Clark of Staffordshire and an octogenarian recalled how in 1949 Northants won his version of the championship using the two dice game (packaged in a blue box at 1/6d). Mr Clark's letter was followed in December by others on the topic. One recalled a version of the game made out of hexagonal pencils* and sophisticated enough to have negative weighting for tailenders. So that's what they do on winter evenings in Tring.

I am sure that aged about eleven I carried in my trouser pocket this most portable of games but far more important in my sporting life at that time was an alternative, more skilful game. Its name was 'Stumpz', a board game, ideally for two but quite suitable when home alone. It was designed by Charles Goodall  and first published in 1931 by Thomas De La Rue and Co publishers of amongst other things, bank notes and playing cards. It was marketed as being  for those aged 10 and above. I recall being introduced to it by my older brother when I was recovering from mumps aged about 8.

As one might expect from its publishers it was a board game but with two packs of cards, one for the batsman and one for the bowler. The board was  the size of a Monopoly board and was marked into segments in which the fielders were placed. One element of sophistication we added was to number the fielders so we could identify catchers, bit ahead of our time with that .There was some skill in that the bowler could choose his line and length and the batsmen whether to attack or defend a particular delivery. My matches were usually test matches involving England and scores were kept in small green scorebooks.

Eventually I must have tired of the game but I still remember being disappointed years later on learning that it had gone to a jumble sale. It had probably been in the family's possession since before the war and an edition sold recently on the internet for £49.95 plus postage. I wonder if it was the one that gave me so much pleasure and England so many victories.

* there's a thought for those of you still struggling for that elusive Xmas present