Pub Game Trophies & Medals - Pt.1

The rewards for winning in pub game play are usually 'token' at best, rarely of significant monetary value. In fact most of the trophies awarded to individuals today are practically valueless, mass-produced plastic, purely symbolic, though no less important to those who receive them of course. Small cash prizes are sometimes awarded, indeed I recall winning a few quid as runner-up in a pairs cup competition in my local Table Skittles League. I'm not sure this is a widespread thing, it certainly came as something of a surprise to me at the time.

The real prize for victorious teams and individuals in local competition is the proud legacy of achievement. That, and getting your name engraved on what are often impressive league trophies or shields, joining a list of previous winners that may stretch back over many decades of play, perhaps even a century or more! In days gone by you might also expect to see your name in the local newspaper. The chat and banter of a social night out at pub or club, and the outside-chance of a bit of glory and local bragging-rights are everything in pub games.

Until relatively recently, prizes would have been both symbolic, and often of genuine monetary value. The huge number of mostly silver medals and trophies awarded in local competition from the late 19th century and throughout much of the 20th century, is testament to how much more important these games would have been to participants back then. It's hard to gauge just how valuable these medals would have been in their day, after all, they may have been made from silver (occasionally gold!), but there's very little weight to them, and practically all were 'struck' or 'cast' rather than individually 'crafted' by the jewellers and medallists who made them. But they're certainly medals in the true sense of the word, recognition in precious metal of success in what may have been a very tough competition over the course of a season or cup run.

So, reasonably valuable tokens that would have been awarded in large quantities almost everywhere games were played competitively. Precious enough to the individuals who won them that they wouldn't have been simply discarded, but perhaps not valuable enough for the melting pot. As such they're quite common now, and come up for sale in the antiques and collectibles trade all the time, albeit they're not quite as common as those for 'sporting' prowess such as Football, Cricket, or Athletics. Over the years I've acquired a few of these medals, the images on the front and little scraps of social history engraved on the rear make them attractive items to collect and research. Each one has a story to tell, though deciphering that story can often prove difficult given the chronic lack of information on pub games leagues in archives and online sources. Here are a few examples from my collection.

This medal (above & left) is an interesting one. Probably made by Vaughton Ltd, a jeweller and medallist that's still trading in Birmingham today. Whilst I've failed to discover anything about the I S Skittles Club (Islington?), what's striking about this medal is the image on the front which appears to show a gentleman about to hurl a weighty discus-shaped 'Cheese' at a set of very large skittle pins. The size/shape of the pins and the layout of the alley all point toward this representing the almost extinct game of Old English Skittles, famously still played at the last remaining pub alley for the game at the Freemasons Arms in Hammersmith, London. This style of skittles was very common around the war years which is when this medal would have been awarded, and yet this is one of only two examples that I've come across, both by Vaughton Ltd with an identical skittling image. It's important to note that the image on the front of a medal is no guarantee that it represents the version of skittles actually played in the league it was awarded for. It may simply be that this was the standard medal for all skittles games supplied by Vaughtons, and for this reason it's not wise to draw firm conclusions about the specific games they might represent.

A good example of this is the medal shown here which appears to represent the popular 'West Country' game of alley skittles. The figure, clearly holding a round ball, is lining-up to 'bowl' at a set of typically dumpy alley skittles. The slatted alley is also 'Western' in style. However, this medal was actually awarded to the winner of the 1944/5 season in the Syston Skittles League, a league of longstanding in the 'Long Alley Skittles' county of Leicestershire. I think we can be reasonably sure that the league would have been playing Long Alley at this time, a very different type of skittles that's certainly not the one represented on this medal.

Dominoes is perhaps the most humble of all pub games, yet even this warranted medals made of silver. An inexpensive game played casually as well as competitively, but a game with something of an image problem, particularly with the young. Both Dominoes and Cards are games that younger pub-goers take little interest in, unless of course there's a stake to be won. Back in 1959 when this medal was struck by Fattorini & Sons Ltd, a small bit of silver would have been ample reward for a seasons play. The medal shown here seems to be for the most common pub Domino game, Fives & Threes given that the 6-3 and double 5 are the most important scoring tiles in the game.

The 1930's were the time when Darts really took off in Britain, and by the 40's it seems every pub had a board, if not a team actually playing in a local league. The 'sport' was widely promoted with booklets detailing how to play, numerous sponsored competitions with cash prizes, as well as hugely popular exhibition matches. There was even a highly irritating song extolling the virtues of the game. So this medal by W H Haseler Ltd of Birmingham (1938) was one of the earlier examples of its kind, which perhaps explains the rather poor rendering of the game itself. The Dart is somewhat oversized, the Board rather too small and perhaps closer in detail to a target than a true Dartboard. Darts represents the most common of all pub game medals, most of which feature a simple rendering of a Dartboard on the front, though earlier examples like this one tend to concentrate on the player as much as the board. There is still a Hornsea & District Ladies Darts League.

Table Skittles medals don't seem to turn up as often as those for other skittle games. Perhaps this is down to the more local/regional nature of the game in comparison to alley skittles which is widespread. The medal above is a modern example made from base metal, and has a fairly accurate rendering of a classic Northamptonshire 'Hooded' Skittles Table. Again, this is the only one of its kind that I've thus-far come across, appropriately enough at a Car Boot sale in the county. Slightly odd given that I've scoured antiques centres, fayres and flea markets in Northants for several years without success. I gather that small trophies, plaques and shields are awarded for Table Skittles these days, and attractive as they are, I'm not sure what folk would actually do with a medal like this one now. When the awarding of medals was at its peak, most players would have wore pocket watches. This explains why small medals like this are often known as Fob Medals or Medallions, because they were designed to be displayed on a watch chain.

This silver medal is also clearly for Table Skittles, though careful examination reveals a slightly different form of the game has been depicted. This medal was struck by Thomas James Skelton of Birmingham & Chester in 1933, and at this time there would have been several local variants of the game of Table Skittles. This table has no 'Hood' like the Northamptonshire game, and the table is longer and perhaps narrower, in fact more in the style of the Kentish game Daddlums. This unique skittles game is almost extinct now, but would have been very popular and quite common throughout the South East at the time this medal was awarded. Again, it's hard to draw firm conclusions about the game that this was actually presented for, and sadly the detailed inscription on the back has proved little help in this regard, but if this is a medal for Daddlums competition it may prove to be something of a rarity. I don't doubt there are other medals for this game out there somewhere, but as yet I've failed to find them.