Pub Game: Pub Skittles (AKA Table Skittles)

Skittles is a game which fills the gap between its ancient Egyptian predecessor and today's modern bowling.  It reached a peak in Britain as the 1800's creeped into the 1900's and has since become increasingly scarce.  The original version was played in an alley with players throwing "the cheese" (it was originally a hard wheel of cheese, but is now commonly a heavy wooden disc) at nine pins in a diamond formation.  Evntually, pub, or table, skittles was developed by pub owners to bring players back into the pubs where they would, undoubtably, purchase more pints of beer.

A few years ago, I found a table skittles set in an antique shop and purchased it.  Although it has obvious minor repairs and upgrades, there is a permanent tag identifying it as a London built set from 1908.  It was difficult to figure out exactly how it was played, but the information is out there.  One valuable resource is the book: "Played at the Pub:  The pub games of Britain," by Arthur Taylor, which can be purchased online and ordered via Royal Air Mail.  After referencing this book, multiple online resources, and other points of information, I have come up with a set of rules that I use to play:

      Absolute Rules
-The Cheese shall be thrown three times

      Common Rules

-The player must stand facing the table with the pole on the left (the picture to the right is the perspective of the thrower)
-The Kingpin (with the red dot) must be knocked down to score
-The Cheese must travel clockwise around the pole and only once through the skittles
-Scoring is kept with pins in a cribbage style board (see picture below)
-The cheese must be released prior to the hand reaching the plane which extends from the side of the board where the post is located

        House Rules

-The player who is about to throw is responsible for setting up the pins
-If anyone is in the flight path of the cheese, they may not complain about being intentionally or accidentally struck so long as the thrower does not harm or abuse the table set
-A pint must be in the non-throwing hand of the thrower
-If all skittles are knocked down, the thrower scores a ten.  The skittles are then set back up and they must once again knock over the kingpin in order to add to their score.  The maximum impossible score is 30.


There are other variations of this game, the most common of which seems to be the version in which a top is spun by wrapping the top with a string and pulling on the string.  The top then moves over the surface of a table knocking down pins of different values.  In my opinion, the version of the game described above allows for more skill to be involved and requires some practice. 

When it comes to pub games, house rules rule.  If you know about skittles or other pub games, please post!