A-Z Of Toys And Games

N NAPOLEON ("NAP")- five card game, using a standard pack. Players bid for how many "tricks" they will take. Related to Whist, Bridge, etc. Was once a popular pub game. I have played it, but not recently. Related terms were sometimes used in football headlines e.g. in Green 'Un "Millers go Nap" means that we scored five goals. Unfortunately, that phrase has not been not used in the last few months!
 
mikemiller said:
N NAPOLEON ("NAP")- five card game, using a standard pack. Players bid for how many "tricks" they will take. Related to Whist, Bridge, etc. Was once a popular pub game. I have played it, but not recently. Related terms were sometimes used in football headlines e.g. in Green 'Un "Millers go Nap" means that we scored five goals. Unfortunately, that phrase has not been not used in the last few months!
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Used to be a regular Sunday lunch game in my local.
 
P POKER - well-known betting card game with many variants (e.g..Texas Hold'em). Often featured in cowboy films, just before a saloon-bar fight breaks out. I have played it, but not very often.
 
... Or (at school) there were targets and grids painted onto the playground tarmac, which you skimmed the quoits onto , and scored points depending on which section the quoit landed on.
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R ROUNDERS - often played in "games" at school. Bat-and-ball game with four bases to get round to score a "run". Simplified version of baseball.
 
S SUBBUTEO - probably the first football game. You had to flick the players with your fingers around the pitch to score and the goalie was on a long piece of plastic. Was always jealous of the lads next door who had one when I didn't. I got to play it a couple of times only to discover it really hurt my fingernails!
 
Was never a big fan of Subbuteo - too fiddly, bits easily lost or accidentally trodden on, etc.
It is mentioned in songs by the Undertones, Half Man, Half Biscuit, etc., though.
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TIDDLYWINKS - table top game where players use a plastic disc ("squidger") to shoot smaller discs ("winks") into a target pot. Originaly patented in 1888.
 
herringthorpe said:
S SUBBUTEO - probably the first football game. You had to flick the players with your fingers around the pitch to score and the goalie was on a long piece of plastic. Was always jealous of the lads next door who had one when I didn't. I got to play it a couple of times only to discover it really hurt my fingernails!
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Played it loads in my teens. Always used the small ball not the huge one. One Saturday after shops had shut my cousin trod on the only ball and we played with a malteser.
 
mikemiller said:
Was never a big fan of Subbuteo - too fiddly, bits easily lost or accidentally trodden on, etc.
It is mentioned in songs by the Undertones, Half Man, Half Biscuit, etc., though.
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TIDDLYWINKS - table top game where players use a plastic disc ("squidger") to shoot smaller discs ("winks") into a target pot. Originaly patented in 1888.
Click to expand...
Don't think I ever managed to get one in the pot.
 
U - Umbrella. I feel this is a bit of a cheat as I've never played this nor seen it played but I have seen the box and read the blurb which is something about players arranging umbrellas of different colours on a street crossing in 'dance' patterns. Sounds bonkers but it exists!
 
W WHOT! - card game where you have to match shapes and numbers. Whatever cards you have left in your hand count as points against you. A bit like Uno! (see entry for "U"). Quite lot of strategy to it. Like it. (y)
 
Y YAHTZEE - five-dice game, where players score points for making combinations to match different categories . First marketed in 1956. Related to Poker-Dice. Quite like it. It can be played on-line too.
 
Z - Zombicide. Board game about survivors after a zombie holocaust. Has given rise to quite a number of spin-offs and I read that the franchise had sold over $34m. Zombie themes seem very popular in a range of genres.
 
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