Dominoes, Table Skittles and Gluten Free Beer at the Luton Beer & Cider Festival.
On Friday 17th February we headed to the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival at the High Town Sports & Arts Centre in Luton.
The souvenir glass from the Beer Fest and a hand of my Dominoes
Ahead of the event I’d been informed by the Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group that there would be four Gluten Free Beers on offer (in amongst the many beers, ciders and perries)! I'd also spoken to one of the organisers, who is a Coeliac, and found out the beers would be available on the foreign beers stand.
The four GF beers available were from Green's and were the Bottle Conditioned Re-fermented Blonde, Brown and Dark Ales & Greens Discovery. I chose a bottle of the Blonde Beer and would definitely buy it again. It was excellent that the Beer Festival had chosen to include Gluten Free beers on the roster too. I'm a big fan of Cider and Perry, but it's nice to go to a Beer Fest and actually have the choice to buy a Beer if I want to.
The four Gluten Free Beers available. There were plenty of posters around the venue advertising the beers, along with a factsheet explaining what Coeliac Disease is.
In amongst the drinking me and Emily played some Dominoes in a best-of-3, 5 & 7 series to decide the Luton Drink Club Dominoes Champion.
A Dominoes game in 'action'
The main hall at the Beer Fest housed a vast array of ales and was where the four Gluten Free beers were being sold.
Me with a Gluten Free Ale and another 'third' of strong Cider!
The hall also housed the CAMRA stand where they had two Pub Games available to play – Shove Ha’penny and Table Skittles!
The Table Skittles at the CAMRA stand
The Shove Ha'penny Board
Me lining up a swing on the Table Skittles
An excellent evening with lots of different drinks to try. Roll on the 30th Luton Beer & Cider Festival!
The first 20 people to solve the riddle will receive a bonus chance to ‘unlock’ one of the Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt tasks ahead of the launch date of the 1st March 2012!
Prior to the voting the Minigolfnews.com team picked the top 20 images from the 116 photos that had been submitted by 30 photographers at Minigolf courses and events in 2011.
Playing Bar Billiards at two pubs in Hertfordshire.
On Saturday 11th February 2012 me and two friends visited a couple of pubs in Hertfordshire for a few games of Bar Billiards.
Having rung round the pubs in Herts & Beds that are listed on the AEBBAmap of Bar Billiards tables earlier in the day I had found out that The Red Lion in Studham, Beds no longer has a table. Nor does the Bedford Arms in Hitchin, having changed to a standard Pool table. We'd also found The Bucks Head pub in Little Wymondley has also removed their Bar Billiards table, but does offer free Dominoes, Cards and Cribbage to customers.
The Bar Billiards table at The Orange Tree in Baldock
First up was a visit to The Orange Tree, where we spotted the table positioned in the 'public bar', quite nicely near to a real log fire to keep punters and players warm. After a quick run through of the rules I took on Simon in a game.
The Orange Tree Bar Billiards Rules
To decide who would break we played a hand of Rock Paper Scissors. I lost.
Simon 'Practice' Hall takes a shot
Simon may have won the break, but when the match came to the closing stages the score was 800 to nil, with Simon having wiped out his score by knocking down the dreaded black peg! He did however manage to score 200 points by sinking the last white ball to make the result 800-200.
Lining up a shot
As the table at The Orange Tree was positioned against a wall/under a window it was only possible to play shots at the 200 & 100 holes from the left hand side of the table. Not a major obstacle really. I did like the fact that there were three sizes of cue available to use. As the pub was busy and there was a door behind the baulk line end I opted to use the 'baby' cue which was only about two and a half foot long.
When I had phoned ahead earlier in the day the man at the pub had confirmed they still had a table and said that the baize on it had been relaid. The table did look and play nicely indeed, with the balls rolling very smoothly indeed. But unfortunately in the second game a lot of the balls kept getting 'stuck' in the pockets after being potted!? This meant for much of our second 'three-way-dance' match we were not playing with a full deck!
Simon picked up wins at The Chequers Inn. Both games once again went to a shootout on the 200 hole.
Interestingly the table at The Chequers Inn had a different layout to the table in The Orange Tree and was also different to the only other table I'd actually played, at The Strathmore Arms in St Paul's Walden. Both of those tables had three obstacles (one with 'mushrooms' the other with 'pegs'), but the table at The Chequers Inn had four mushrooms, with one guarding the 200 hole, one at the 100 hole (which was not marked as a scoring hole) and the other two were in front of each of the 50 holes. It certainly made the table a lot harder to score points on. The positioning of the table at The Chequers Inn also meant that shots at the 200 hole in the last ball shootout could only be made from the right hand side of the table.
The Bar Billiards table at The Chequers Inn at Knebworth - this one had four spots and four 'mushrooms'! Shooting for the 50s was very difficult
There was a nice old rules sheet/poster on display next to the table at The Chequers Inn. it was originally revised in 1973 and reprinted in 1976 and described "The Game of Bar Billiards - sometimes called Russian Bagatelle, Skittle Billiards or Snookerette etc."
This rule sheet had the rules laid out for playing the game using the 'first arrangement' and 'second arrangement' and it was this second type of rules the table had been set up for, with the previously mentioned four peg/skittle marks. There was also a good section on the sheet on 'How to Promote Interest' in the game.
The nice old Bar Billiards rule sheet at The Chequers Inn
An enjoyable day out at two different pubs, playing a fun and very tricky game. On an incredibly cold day it was nice to be in two very warm pubs.
Emily and I would really appreciate nominations. Entry forms (with a deadline date of the 21st February) can be downloaded from the link here. A news item in the latest Luton Herald & Post, p.55 also mentions that entries can now be emailed in, but lists the deadline as Monday 13th of February.
Emily & Richard at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Stockholm, Sweden
Via the Viz comic facebook page I saw a link to the BAD POSTCARDS tumblr page. I decided to have a look at what other 'Bad Postcards' would be on there and noticed that this excellent website of vintage American postcards from 1950 to 1975 featured a minigolf postcard!
My mate, fellow blogger, former minigolf doubles partner and "sometime adversary" Oliver 'The Machine' Florence has blogged about the snowy weather getting in the way of some Guildford-based activities today.
I had been scheduled to visit the town for some Bar Billiards and a walk around the castle, but snow and heavy traffic on the M1 put paid to that idea.
I recently noticed that Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf has recently created a blog. You can check it out at "Jungle Rumble THE BLOG"
There are two Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf sites, each containing two 18-hole indoor miniature golf courses. One is in Bristol at the Cabot Circus Shopping Centre. When Emily and I visited the courses back in February 2010 they became the 161st and 162nd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We were in Bristol preparing for the British Minigolf Association's BMGA English Open tournament that was taking place at Jungle Rumble.
For details of other minigolf blogs (and links to other websites of interest) please check out the 'links' on the right hand side of the Ham & Egger Files web page.
One of Emily’s photos has been selected for the Minigolfnews.comMinigolf Photo of the Year Competition!
The Minigolfnews.com team selected the top 20 snaps from 116 submitted photos taken by 30 photographers at Minigolf events and courses throughout 2011.
Two of the Minigolf Sport Governing Bodies that I play competitive minigolf in have information available online about the sport of Minigolf, the rules of the game and the associations that administrate them.
You can check out the British Minigolf Assocations information flyer 'An Introduction to the British Minigolf Association' which has details about the BMGA, its competitions, benefits of membership and the (Abridged) Rules of Minigolf.
The World Minigolf Sport Federation has a brochure called 'Starting Out In Minigolf' and gives a background to the sport, basic rules and information on the four systems of Minigolf the WMF uses for their competitions.
At the recent Star City Open weekend in Birmingham my fellow Crazy Golfer and BMGA Tour minigolf rival Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd pointed me in the direction of the 1970’s Yorkshire TV show ‘Indoor League’. As a fellow fan of odd and obscure sports he knew I would appreciate the games on offer on the programme, he wasn’t wrong.
Bar Billiards sign at The Strathmore Arms Pub
Indoor League was a show that ran from 1972-1977 on Yorkshire Television/ITV and was presented by Cricket legend Fred Trueman. The games played on the show include Darts (using a Yorkshire board, which has no ‘trebles’!), Skittles, Shove Ha’penny, Table Football and a game that took my fancy – Bar Billiards.
In all my years frequenting pubs I had never played the game and have only ever seen a glimpse of a table before – at The White Horse Pub in Southsea. With Indoor League whetting my appetite for a play of the game I took to the web to search out information on the game and whether there were any tables near to us in Luton...?
First of all I found that there is an ‘All England Bar Billiards Association’ that governs the game and organises tournaments in 18 counties, which are mostly in southern England and Jersey.
A link on the All England Bar Billiards Association (AEBBA) website shows the location of Bar Billiard tables in the UK. Checking this out I saw that the closest ones to us were at The Strathmore Arms pub in St Paul’s Walden (near Hitchin, Herts), The Red Lion at Studham (near Dunstable, Beds), Bedford Arms in Hitchin and at The Bucks Head in Little Wymondley (near Hitchin, Herts). Also on the list and fairly nearby were The White Lion in Hemel Hempstead, The Goat Inn in St Albans, The Chequers Inn in Knebworth, Our Mutual Friend in Stevenage and The Unicorn in Cublington, Bucks. I have also found out via twitter that The Orange Tree in Baldock, Herts does have a table (and also sells Gluten Free food and Beer).
* Location updates (4th &11th Feb and 24th March 2012) - The Bucks Head in Little Wymondley no longer has a table - The Red Lion in Studham no longer has a table - The Bedford Arms in Hitchin has changed to a Pool table - The Chequers Inn in Knebworth does still have a table - and the baize has been relaid - The White Lion in Hemel Hempstead no longer has a table
So, on Friday 27th January 2012 we headed to the closest pub on the list – The Strathmore Arms pub in St Paul’s Walden.
The Strathmore Arms pub in St Paul's Walden, near Hitchin, Herts
Though close to Luton, a mere 8 miles, the B Road there is long, winding and quite pot holey – far removed from the hustle and bustle of Luton. It’s not often we venture out to the villages surrounding Luton. We have passed through some of them to reach the Offley Oriental Chinese Restaurant (which serves some great Gluten Free food). We also regularly go to Tea Green Golf Club at Wandon End, but this is very close to the Luton border.
When we arrived at The Strathmore Arms we ordered some drinks and then asked if they had a Bar Billiards table. The obliging barman said they did and pointed us around to a room attached to the main bar area where the table stood. And what a sight it was. The Barman told us it was a “pound a go” and left us to it.
The Bar Billiards table at The Strathmore Arms pub
Having only seen the game played on TV before, Emily and I had a quick glance at the rules on the plate affixed to the table itself, put a quid in the machine and started playing.
Emily plays a shot
After the first practice game we had a deeper read of the rules sheet that was beside the table and realised we had been playing our own version of the game! We then decided to play a best-of-3 games match to decide the Champion.
Emily has a read of the rules
In the first ‘proper’ game I managed to beat Emily with a final score of 400 to nil after Emily knocked the Black Peg down in the final ball shootout. Emily had reached a score of 940 before this was wiped out.
In the second game of the best-of-3 match I once again won to take the overall victory. This time I had a score of 1000, to Emily’s 90. This was a much cleaner match, with very little peg knocking down!
I line up a shot
In our fourth and final game Emily beat me 70-0. I had reached 180 but knocked the Black Peg down to wipe-out. Emily’s opening break was a score of 380 before she played a foul shot to wipe-out the break.
Once we’d finished our games we had a chat to the bar staff and some of the friendly locals. We got some further information about Bar Billiards and that it used to be a very popular game in Hertfordshire (and was one of the originating spots for the game), however there are not that many tables left to play.
As we were so interested in the game a few of the locals asked us if we were on a mission of some sort relating to Bar Billiards. We told them we weren’t (yet), but were on a Crazy World of Minigolf Tour! As I’m like a dog with a bone about new/old/interesting/fun/obscure/odd games and sports and challenges who knows, we may start-up a Crazy World of Bar Billiards Tour!
Another view of the table - plenty of balls still in play!
Emily was also interested in the Pudding Club that is run at The Strathmore Arms and there was a lively discussion going on amongst the staff and regulars over the latest offerings and the current rankings list!
A Dart Board was also set up next to the Bar Billiards table. I may take my ‘arrers next time we visit.
Looking at the Bar Billiards table I noticed that there was a badge affixed to the table we played that was from the “National Bar Billiards Association”. When I got home I had another look on The Online Guide to Traditional Games website and reread about the game and saw that National Bar Billiards Association was a pre-World War II organisation! The game started in the UK in the 1930’s, so the table at The Strathmore Arms could well be one of the first in the UK then!
Speaking with Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd and fellow sports and games enthusiast Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley I have found out they know of other tables in London, Gravesend and Northampton. ‘The Roller’ also tells me there is a thriving Wellingborough Bar Billiards League and when Emily and I head to Northants for a game then the Crown & Anchor Pub in Northampton is the place to go.
It seems a Bar Billiards ‘side-tournament’ or two is in order.
The late presentation of the trophy was due to previous Champion Guy Martin forgetting to bring it to New Malden, having left it somewhere ending in 'ham'.