The World Marbles Championship - on Good Friday in Crawley
The British and World Marbles Championship is a tournament that normally takes place annually on Good Friday, and dates back to 1588. It is held at the Greyhound public house in Tinsley Green, near Crawley in West Sussex, though sadly, both the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teams of six players participate to win the title and a silver trophy. The event is open to anyone of any age or nationality. Over the years, players from other countries have participated alongside the English teams.
The tournament reputedly dates back to 1588 during the reign of Elizabeth I, when marbles was chosen as the deciding game of a legendary sporting encounter between two young suitors, Giles and Hodge, over the hand of a Tinsley Green milk maiden named Joan, in an Olympic-style contest lasting one week. Hodge had been victorious at singlestick, backsword, quarter staff, cudgel, play-wrestling and cock throwing, while Giles had won at archery, cricket-a-wicket, tilting at quintain (jousting targets), Turk's head, stoolball and tipcat. With the score level at 6–6, Good Friday was the date chosen for the final event. Marbles was selected by the girl to be the deciding game, and Giles defeated Hodge.
The modern event began in 1932, organised by the British Marbles Board of Control (BMBC). The version of marbles played is "Ring Taw", known in the United States as "Ringer" and in Germany as "Englisches Ringspiel". Forty-nine target marbles are grouped closely together in 6-foot diameter (1.8-metre) raised concrete ring covered with sand, each of the target marbles being a coloured glass or ceramic sphere having a diameter of approximately 12mm (half an inch).
Two teams of six players take turns using the tip of the finger to aim and project the "tolley", a larger marble (commonly referred to as the "shooter" or "taw"), which is a glass or ceramic sphere of 18mm diameter (three-quarters of an inch), deploying top spin, back spin and side spin, to drive other marbles out of the ring.
A player's knuckle must be touching the ground when shooting, known as "knuckling down". Moving the tolley closer to the target marbles, known as "cabbaging", is forbidden - as is any other advantageous movement of a players shooting hand during shooting. These would constitute a foul known as "fudging". A foul shot ends the turn of the offending player, though the score achieved in that turn stands. Any player who makes three foul shots during a game is eliminated from that game. The first team to knock out 25 marbles from the ring is the winner.
Further reading
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