Jump to content

Made-Up Childhood Games


Devon Malcolm

Recommended Posts

  • Paid Members

I reckon we were probably about 11 or 12 when we played this, but me and my mate Naveed invented this game where we would build a barrier in front of us out of boxes and cushions or anything we could find. The object of the game was to take turns pelting marbles at them to try and knock it down. I don't think we ever managed it that often but it was fun absolutely twatting marbles around my bedroom - until one day one deflected off the top of my barrier and cracked my bedroom window.

Also, we invented a game we called handball which wasn't really handball at all. It was sort of like hand tennis except you had to get it in the other person's goal (the goals were at either end of my living room). You weren't allowed to throw it but you could head it, plus you couldn't go over the halfway line. You were allowed to use the walls to try and score indirectly. One day I played a shot and it sent one of my mum's statuettes toppling to a certain breakage in the fireplace and he dived full length and caught it in one of those moments that only happens in films.

I scored the winner while he did that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chuck was big at primary school.

Two teams of 5 in the playground, length of the netball pitch. You're not allowed past your third of the pitch marking. You throw the tennis ball and it has to bounce in your opponents last third, whilst they try and stop it going past them for a goal. Simple.

Patball. Again with a tennis ball. Hand tennis I guess. You have to hit it, it has to bounce before it hits the wall, if it double bounces before your opponent hits it, they're out.

I've heard of this at other schools of course, but no one has ever heard of Chuck before. Might be a St Margarets exclusive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

When we were made to stop taking a cricket bat to school because Tim Stephenson hit Zubbrigen (Not his real name but a vaguely Swiss look and a penchant for ski anoraks earned him the nickname) with it we had to fill our lunchtime with something else. 

Because we were all nerds it became quite complicated. The basis of the game consisted of a massive wall, a door propped against it and some tennis courts. If I get chance I will draw up the full playing area. You had to throw a tennis ball against it in order. If you were caught on the full  you were out, if you were caught one hand one bounce by the person who followed you in the order you were out if you missed the wall you were out. You had to throw the ball from where you stopped it. 

5 points were awarded to the last man standing in each round, with 1 point to the runner up. 2 point was for each catch taken bare handed and 1 point for each catch taken wearing a glove of any description. Baseball mitts, goalie gloves, and wicket keeping gloves were used at various points. 

 

The points were recorded and each week a winner was declared. There were 7 of us who played every day and other people came and went over the years. 

 

Dave Raymond was the best player in the league, like a Steve Davis in his prime. No flamboyant throws, solid catcher, unflappable. I was more of a Kirk Stevens, erratic, occasionally brilliant and occasionally unstoppable, but substitute the cocaine for Fry's Chocolate Creams obviously. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Off The Roof was something we'd play in the school yard. Basically involved throwing a tennis ball (or half filled bottle of pop) onto the sloped roof and then calling out the name of someone who would then catch the object as it fell to the ground. Repeat until we're all out or the bell goes. 

Red Letter wasn't something I'd heard of outside my group of mates but I'm sure it's been mentioned by others on here before. Basically there's 2 teams. Each member of Team A are given a letter which all together spells a word. Team A go and find hiding spots.

Team B are the finders, and when they stumble across someone from Team A, they would essentially give them a bit of a kicking until the Team A member gave up their letter. Repeat until all letters are known and the word is guessed, or until someone has to go to the hospital. 

We were fucking idiots as kids. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Me and my cousin used to play pretty much the exact same variant of handball that Devon mentions. Usually with a little power ball or cat toy ball. 

We would play a game called Guerrilla Warfare which is basically the same as army but more extreme.  It was exclusively played at night in a certain field and instead of pretend guns and grenades we'd have carte blanche to twat each other with sticks and lob stones at each other.

Another game we'd play was we had to split in to teams and build a den then take it in turns to try and destroy the others den. We'd been digging a trench in the guerrilla warfare field and it got turned in to a near indestructible bunker reinforced by all the logs and bricks that had been lobbed at it.

There weren't many girls on our estate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I was lucky enough to grow up in a cul de sac where five of the houses had children and we were all a similar age. This meant that most evenings and weekends there were around 10 kids knocking about, with even more coming in from nearby streets. The year is 1995, and a new game is invented....

Slip 'n' Slide

At least ten kids, on bikes, at the end of the cul de sac. There are two rules.
1) You must keep your bike moving, and if your foot touches the floor its game over.
2) You must sing Don't Look Back In Anger at the top of your voice (we thought the song started with the lyrics "Slip 'n' Slide"!)

Cue chaos as kids are being launched off their bikes by the bigger kids whilst shouting Oasis badly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
39 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Curbsy you face a friend across the road and the idea is to throw a football at the curb for it to go up in the sky and you to catch it. Play continues until the ball hits the floor and then you swap. 

Damn near every kid I knew growing up played this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
46 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Curbsy you face a friend across the road and the idea is to throw a football at the curb for it to go up in the sky and you to catch it. Play continues until the ball hits the floor and then you swap. 

Yeah, this game was played everywhere. But we played with different rules; you got 1 point for a standard two-handed throw, 2 pts for a one-handed throw, 5 pts for a two-handed facing away throw and a mega 10 pts for a one-handed facing away throw. If you caught the ball in mid-air, then you got to step in middle of the road and fire the ball rapidly into the kerb, getting 1 point for each hit, and you could keep going for as long you caught the ball after each bounce and you didn't slow down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

When we were banned from the field at Primary school in bad weather, we'd play a version of football on the playground with a squashed tin can. About 20 aside and the goal was the whole width of the kerb at either end. Tons of inadvertant players. Mass chaos. Nearly impossible to score. So much fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
3 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Curbsy you face a friend across the road and the idea is to throw a football at the curb for it to go up in the sky and you to catch it. Play continues until the ball hits the floor and then you swap. 

Anyone heard of this game called hide & seek by any chance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
5 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Chuck was big at primary school.

Two teams of 5 in the playground, length of the netball pitch. You're not allowed past your third of the pitch marking. You throw the tennis ball and it has to bounce in your opponents last third, whilst they try and stop it going past them for a goal. Simple.

This sounds genuinely brilliant, like it could be a legit sport somewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Less a game and more a mugging, but Bundles was the best month I had at school. 

Our form room in year 10 was a dilapidated DT hut miles away from where teachers bothered to check. Consequently, we started playing Bundles, a game that involved rugby tackling other players in the room as we moved around the edge and piling on as high as you could possibly get. The rest of the year pretty soon caught on and we ended up having about 50 kids causing utter carnage.

Highlights included one bundle where the ceiling was reached and another where I attempted to do a Swanton bomb on to the pile and kicked James Daley straight in the face as he stood up. The staff eventually cottoned on to the situation due to the ludicrous amount of people turning up at the school nurses office with concussions and sprains and posted Mr Davies outside as sentry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...