Exploring the History of Traditional Pub Games

A Living History in the Public Bar

The British pub has always been more than a place to drink. For centuries it doubled as the village courtroom, boxing ring, music hall and, above all, its games room. Long before televisions hung above the bar, a landlord's reputation rested partly on what could be played in the corner: a dartboard screwed to a cork backing, a slate bed set into a table, a skittle alley tacked onto the back yard. Many of those games survive, and knowing where they came from makes a quiet midweek pint considerably more interesting.

The law had a hand in shaping them. The Gaming Act of 1845 restricted games of chance in licensed premises while leaving games of skill largely alone. That single distinction explains a great deal about British pub gaming: why so many of our traditional games reward a steady hand and a good eye, why they are played for a pint rather than a purse, and why arguments over the rules can last longer than the match itself.

Dominoes: The Quiet Contest

Dominoes arrived in Britain from Italy and France during the eighteenth century and settled almost immediately onto the pub table. It is the most sociable of the traditional games because it needs no equipment beyond a set of tiles and a flat surface, and it fills the gap between conversation and competition perfectly. In south Wales and the north of England, pub dominoes leagues remain genuinely competitive, with fixtures played on the same night every week from autumn through to spring.

The etiquette matters as much as the play. Tiles are shuffled face down, hands are drawn in silence, and nobody leans over to inspect a neighbour's row. A misplaced tile is usually forgiven once; a forgotten score is not.

• Block dominoes – the simplest version and the best introduction for a newcomer.
• Fives and threes – the traditional league game, scored in multiples of five and three.
• Muggins – played to a running total, where you must claim your score aloud before the next player touches the board.

Darts: From Archery Field to Oche

Darts began as a shortened form of archery practice, thrown at the sawn-off end of a wine cask. The numbering on a standard board — twenty at the top, the low numbers clustered awkwardly around the one — dates from the late nineteenth century and was deliberately designed to punish a stray throw. A century of pub leagues has since standardised everything: the board hangs with the centre at 1.73 metres from the floor, and the oche sits 2.37 metres back. The word itself is said to come from a Yorkshire brewery whose floorboards were being worn away by players standing too close.

The game's legal standing in pubs was settled in 1908, when a London publican successfully argued that darts was a game of skill rather than chance, and was therefore lawful on licensed premises. It has been a fixture ever since, and the ritual is unchanged: chalk your name, throw for the bull to decide who starts, and mind the walk-back.

Skittles, Quoits and the Alley Trade

Skittles is the ancestor of ten-pin bowling, and the surviving pub alleys of Somerset, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire are among the most atmospheric spaces in British hospitality — long, narrow, timber-floored and smelling faintly of chalk. Where there is no room for a full alley, pubs used table skittles, sometimes called devil among the tailors: nine miniature pins, a ball on a chain, and a great deal of swearing.

Quoits and aunt sally have largely disappeared, victims of twentieth-century licensing and the value of back-yard land. Where they survive, they tend to be in working men's clubs, museum pubs or communities stubborn enough to keep them going. If you want to play, ring ahead. Leagues use the alleys on fixed evenings, and turning up unannounced on a match night is not the done thing.

Shove Ha'penny and Bar Billiards

Shove ha'penny is beautifully simple and fiendishly difficult. A slate or hardwood board is divided into nine horizontal beds, and each player pushes a coin up the board with the heel of the hand, aiming to land it cleanly inside a bed without touching a line. Three coins in each bed wins. Pre-decimal halfpennies were the traditional pieces; most pubs now supply brass tokens, which slide more predictably than old copper.

Bar billiards arrived from Belgium in the 1930s and found a natural home in the corner of the saloon bar. The table has a clockwork timer, holes worth varying scores, and a cluster of mushroom-shaped skittles. Knock one over and you lose the points you have accumulated, so the game rewards patience over bravado. Always ask before lifting the cloth, and never play with a full pint balanced on the rail.

Keeping the Games Alive

These games survive because people keep playing them, and pubs keep them because players drink. If you fancy getting involved, the practical route is straightforward.

• Ask behind the bar which games are played on which nights — most landlords will happily introduce you.
• Join a winter league; sign-up is usually in late August or September, and teams are often short of players.
• Learn the house rules before you argue. Boards and tables vary, and local variations are defended fiercely.
• Practise on quiet afternoons. A dartboard at three o'clock on a Tuesday is yours alone.
• Buy the round when you lose. It is the oldest rule in the book and the one that keeps you invited back.

Play well or play badly, but play. A pub with a game in progress is a warmer, noisier, friendlier place than one without, and every game you start helps carry a small piece of British social history into another generation.