BACKGAMMON AND GAMES
Luxury backgammon checkers made to order
Hand-crafted by Maria di Pace from stainless steel and leather or hardwood, these are 44mm tournament checkers that can cost over £1000 a set from luxury manufacturers like Dunhill or Geoffrey Parker. As opposed to chrome-plated rings, which can tarnish with time, Maria uses more expensive but more durable stainless steel, creating the checkers to order in different colours of prime Uruguayan leather, or infilling them with dark-coloured Patagonian rosewood and light-coloured solid beech. She has a stock of chunky 44mm checkers that are designed to be satisfying to hold at 11mm thick, but now focusses mainly on making 10mm ones that will fit in the side compartments of existing full-sized boards. Both types of checker cost £6 each, ie £180 for a set of 30, with a signed certificate of provenance.
Commissions: mail@jclamb.com
Backgammon wallboards
With all the work and expense that goes into a tournament backgammon board, it seems a pity that such a decorative item should be used briefly and then locked away like a furtive habit. Wallboards are attractive yet useful items designed for the multi-player game of chouette. They can hang on the wall at home or in the pub where chouette is played, and are brought down for a game using tournament-size checkers such as these wood and steel ones by Maria di Pace. For maximum dice visibility, wallboards have low sides and a perspex bar in the middle. They are not designed for formal tournament use, but are an appealing way of playing chouette in a public venue or hanging the board at home so that visitors know they can get a good game. Price on application. This one is shown with rigid hand-sewn leather shakers (£25 each) and scoreballs (£10 each), cheaper and less fiddly than spiral-bound folding scoreboards.
Doubleyou: a simple game of risk and reward
If you enjoy backgammon and would like your kids to learn the game, or if you’ve never tried it but find it confusing to watch, a simplified version may be a good way to start. Backgammon is a bit like ludo. It’s a race around a board, rolling dice to get all your pieces home first, without being landed on by the opponent and sent back to the beginning. But whereas the circuit in ludo is cross-shaped and all the pieces go the same way, backgammon is a horseshoe in which the pieces start at opposite ends. Backgammon also has a lot more pieces than ludo, which can make it seem complicated. In fact, it’s actually a much quicker and more exciting game: quicker, because the average game of backgammon takes about seven minutes, and more exciting because of an amazing invention called the doubling cube. You could use the cube in any game where fortunes fluctuate, like the simple card game called Strip Jack Naked (Beggar Your Neighbour). Basically, if you think you’ve got a reasonable chance of winning, you propose to double the stake. Your opponent can either accept, at which point only he or she can redouble later if things change; or if that doesn’t seem likely enough, they can pay you the single stake and start another game. The challenge for them lies in working out whether the potentially fourfold reward is worth the risk. One way to have the fun without too many complications is to take a single line of 24 squares, play with only three pieces and try to get yours off the other end first. This is the game of Doubleyou (W).
THE RULES OF DOUBLEYOU
Doubleyou (W) is a risk-and-reward race game for 2 players, in which the aim is to win as many points as possible from the opponent by doubling the stake.
W is played on a linear strip (’board’) 24 places long. Each side has two standard dice, numbered 1 through 6, and three checkers that start at opposite ends of the board with the aim of getting off (‘bearing off’) at the other end. They can be moved together or separately. For example, with a roll of 5:2, one checker could move 5 and the other 2, or a single checker could move the entire 7. However, 5:2 cannot be played as a 4 and a 3, nor as a 6 and a 1.
To see who starts in each game, players first roll one die each and the higher roller makes the composite move shown by the two dice. Eg if one rolls 4 and the other rolls 3, the one who rolled 4 moves two of their checkers, one 4 and the other 3. Checkers start from off the board, so the first place is numbered 1 and the second 2, etc. If each player rolls the same number, they both roll again. After the first move, each player rolls two dice and their turn ends when they pick up the dice. To avoid any risk of forgetting where checkers started, they are only moved once the player has indicated where they will go.
All three checkers must be in play before a checker moves further up the board. If a player lands on a place occupied by a single opposing checker (a ‘blot’), their checker knocks it back to the start and replaces it. The opponent must bring the knocked-off checker into play on the next turn, before moving any others.
It is not possible to land on a place occupied by more than one checker, although it is possible to jump over that place. If a player rolls two dice that are the same, for example two 5’s, four of that number are given: eg double 5 is taken as four moves of 5 each, using any of the 3 checkers. Before a player can remove (‘bear off’) a piece from the board, all of their pieces must all be in the final quarter, known as that player’s ‘home board’. Checkers must always be moved so as to use as many pips on the dice as possible, except in bearing off when the two dice can be played in either order.
The game ends when one player has removed, or borne off, all three of their checkers from the board. If the other player has not been able to bear any checkers off at all, they lose double the stake. If the losing player still has one or more pieces in the opponent’s home board, they lose three times the stake.
The W cube. Central to the game is a cube with six faces: W, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32. It starts with the W face upwards. At any stage of the contest, before rolling the dice, a player who perceives a tempting chance of winning can offer to double the stake, by offering the cube on 2 to the opponent and saying “I double you”. The opponent may choose to accept the double and play on at twice the points, or refuse the offer, lose what was indicated on the cube and start another game. The score is recorded with pencil and paper, as are any doubles beyond 32 (to 64, 128 and so on). A player who accepts a double now owns the cube and can subsequently redouble if their fortune changes, which happens a lot in W. Matches can be played open-ended to any number of points (known as a ‘money game’) or to a set total such as 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11. In such matches, the cube cannot be offered in the first game where one of the two players is a single point away from winning (known as the ‘Crawford game’). After that game (‘Post-Crawford’) it can be offered as usual.
Once you get good at W, you will be ready to try the ancient game of backgammon, but W is a fun game on its own. Sets are available from this site at £29, including the patent-leaather playing strip, four dice, a hardwood doubling cube and a leather-and-hardwood case that doubles as a dice shaker.
What on earth is this?
It’s a games timer…
It’s a pass-the-parcel (that doesn’t hurt)…
And it’s a delayed-action catapult.
Click here to see it in action (intriguing the cat):
CLOCKAPULT!©
Hey, it’s a CLOCKAPULT©
A new invention designed as an adult toy and physics teaching aid, the CLOCKAPULT© is basically a delayed-action catapult that fires a lightweight sucker-tipped dart. It can also be used as a simple timer, and as a game in itself along the lines of “pass the bomb” or Russian roulette.
How does it work? The CLOCKAPULT© is a folded triangle of rigid yellow plastic, consisting of three basic parts: a rectangular flange (1), carrying a size 64 rubber band; a triangular plate (2), carrying the name of the device; and a smaller triangular slider (3), with a pointed tip. The small hole in the flange is for the sucker-tipped dart.
Here’s how to have fun with the CLOCKAPULT© in each of its different modes.
Catapult: Begin by placing the CLOCKAPULT© flat on its back as in the illustration, with the flange pointing in the direction of aim. Insert the dart backwards through the hole in the flange so that after you have hooked the rubber band over the slider, the notched end of the dart can be placed on the slider’s point. One side of the notch is slightly longer than the other in order to ensure that the rubber band catches the dart: this side should be placed uppermost. The possibilities for having fun with the CLOCKAPULT© in catapult mode are almost endless, but should not involve pointing the device at another person or animal. One example is to use two CLOCKAPULTS© to fight a duel: place them a short distance apart, with one flat in the shooting position and the other upright as a target. You may want to prop up the narrow end of the shooting CLOCKAPULT© so that the trajectory of the dart is low enough. If the shot is successful, the target becomes the shooter and the two CLOCKAPULTS© are moved a little further apart. Repeat the sequence until the first one to miss loses the duel.
Experiment: Here are some suggestions for physics teachers, who will no doubt come up with many more of their own. 1) Begin by dividing the class into teams, one CLOCKAPULT© to each team, and get them to carry out experiments in calibrating the CLOCKAPULT© with a fine marker pen to observe variations in time. Give each team a set time, eg 30 or 45 seconds, and end with a competition to see who can set the CLOCKAPULT© most accurately and consistently. 2) Discussion topic: what alterations can be made to the design or orientation of a CLOCKAPULT© so that the release mechanism takes more/less time? (Eg change the strength of the rubber band or the angle of the slider – there are at least 8 possibilities.) 3) Written project, in teams or individually (eg as homework): write a technical specification for a CLOCKAPULT© or instructions for use. 4) Ballistics experiment: in catapult mode, record the trajectories of the dart when the rubber band is stretched around the flange at different heights. At a set distance (eg 2 metres) which position gives greatest accuracy? End with a team shoot-out.
Games timer: Wrap the rubber band around the rectangular flange and stand the CLOCKAPULT© upright, with the flange at the base and the triangular slider at the top. Pull the rubber band upwards and hook it over the slider, using one finger on the rubber band at each side of the slider so as to keep it dry and clean. The rubber band will slide towards the tip of the triangle and then return to its original position with a satisfying snap. How long this takes is up to you: begin by trying it with the rubber band in the middle of both flange and slider, and then try adjusting both positions so that the rubber band slips gradually off the slider as quickly or as slowly as you want. You will find that with repeated stretchings, the rubber band takes a little longer each time: you can compensate for this by moving the rubber band a fraction nearer the edge of the flange. The CLOCKAPULT© is not designed for exact timing, but its advantage over an hourglass games timer is that you don’t have to wait for all the sand to fall through before starting the timer for the next turn. It also creates more suspense and makes a clearly audible noise when time is up.
Game: Load the CLOCKAPULT© in timer mode and pass from hand to hand. Players must, for example, a) answer questions from a quiz book; b) mime certain actions or c) draw certain pictures, while in possession of the CLOCKAPULT©. If it goes off while they have it, they are out: last one in is the winner.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS. Risk of choking. For use only under adult supervision. Do not point at another person or animal. Use only with the lightweight dart provided.
Jonathan Lamb
Clockapults are available from this site at £19.99 plus postage and package.
The Montevideo free-standing croquet hoop
With annual costs of up to £4000 for maintaining a full-size croquet lawn in the UK, it is not surprising that clubs are looking at ways of moving towards artificial surfaces. Tennis and hockey did it years ago and many other sports are following suit. In addition, setting up a new club is one thing if you have to obtain land, laser-level it, seed, fertilise, weedkill, scarify, top-dress and mow expensive grass; and another if you have a local hockey club that already has a perfectly smooth artificial surface, providing space for 8 nearly full-sized courts with most of the lines already marked out. Given the difficulty of sinking hoop holes in these high-tech surfaces, it is much simpler just to take along some sets of freestanding hoops and pegs, plonk them down and get playing. Particularly for older players, a really smooth surface is much easier to play on and does wonders for your game.
This is where the Montevideo hoop comes in. It sits on base plates that do not interfere with the run of the ball (unlike cumbersome steel sheets which always have a slight lip) and that leave no mark on the surface when they’re removed. Made of mild steel that has been electrostatically bake-painted in traditional white, the Montevideo is kept in place by up to 12 small pins, adaptable to the type of surface but usually around 7 mm long. Because the ball passes so low through the hoops’ centre of gravity, they are surprisingly stable: in the clip above, the Uruguayan champion actually ran the hoop with three out of her four balls. That was in solo practice, but a set of hoops includes one with a double crossbar, to allow the outplayer to hold the upper bar for hard and jump shots. Where the Montevideo hoop really comes into its own is for positional practice in association croquet, or AC, but given the growing popularity of golf croquet (GC) and the relatively nonstrenuous nature of the sport for less athletic pupils, no school with a hockey pitch should be without a relatively cheap and easy-to-install croquet capability using these freestanding hoops. The name Montevideo, incidentally, derives from the fact that for nearly two decades the British Society in the Uruguayan capital has been happily using these freestanding hoops on carpeted football pitches for 15 years: many of their players would be surprised to discover that there are hoops you actually have to hammer into the ground!
A regular stream of enquiries about Montevideo hoops comes in throughout the year, but the UK croquet association’s manufacturer went out of business in Covid, and no replacement has yet been found. If anybody has a business or garden-shed hobby involving metal work and welding (the bake painting is easily done by a car body shop), they should get in touch with this site. A fair price for a set of six Montevideo hoops and a freestanding white nylon peg would be about £400, of which only a small commission would be payable for the design.
Three-dimensional snakes and ladders
This is not being marketed yet, but it could be if there were sufficient interest. Made of thick natural hide, it is a game for up to 5 players consisting of a spiral that contains 98 holes. The aim is to get near the top and throw the exact number remaining. Players throw one die to see who starts, and then the order is clockwise to the first player’s left. Throwing a six gives an extra roll. If you throw an even number and land on a square with a strut in it, you go up to the corresponding square in the level above. If you throw an odd number and land on a square with a strut in it , you go down to the level below. If the strut takes you down to the ground, you start again. If you land on another player, you send them back to the start.
FUN FOR FREE
Spudstick
Years of experiment have shown that there is no way of commercialising this hugely entertaining game by finding materials that work better than baby new potatoes and dry spaghetti. The game is called Spudstick. The first three players start by snapping off an appropriate length of spaghetti (stick), inserting one end into a potato (spud) and connecting it to the combination of spud and stick (spudstick) that is already there. After that, players may either add a spud and stick or join two existing spuds with a stick of any length, but no further spud is allowed to touch the table (spud-down). If this happens, a forfeit is paid. If a stick snaps during a player’s turn (sticksnap) that player also pays a forfeit. You can either play individually by trying to be the one who has added the highest spud before the structure collapses, or in teams. You can also play collaboratively by trying to beat the world record for the tallest Spudstick structure, currently 85 cm. A factor to bear in mind is that the moisture inside a spud will eventually weaken the stick, so it pays to work fast.
This game is dedicated to the friend from the Midlands who said, on having the game explained to him, “Oh, so it’s not played with cooked spaghetti then?”.