Table Skittles - The Northamptonshire Tradition

If there's one skittles tradition that challenges the West Country alley game for popularity and participation right now, it's the version found in the southern half of the Midlands known as Northamptonshire Table Skittles (aka Hood Skittles). In the same way that the 'West Country' game is also found throughout much of the West Midlands, Wales, and central southern England, Northamptonshire Table Skittles is in fact played competitively in four English counties including neighbouring Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire. It's also likely that the game would have been popular in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland at one time.

The Cock, Broom, Bedfordshire

Despite the inevitable decline of the game in recent years, a decline which merely mirrors that of pub-going in general, Table Skittles remains a popular pub and club game that until relatively recently was ubiquitous in the county that gives it its name. Almost all social clubs and most pubs in Northamptonshire would have had a skittles table, and even now they remain relatively common throughout the county. Table skittles leagues are numerous and still reasonably well supported, the game played to a fascinating, if slightly bewildering array of different rules and conventions which I won't attempt to document here! 

In common with many local and regional pub games, it's likely that most pubgoers outside of the games core area have probably never heard of this version of skittles, least of all seen a game in progress. In fact the only national exposure the game has had to my knowledge was when it featured on the 1970's Yorkshire Television series 'Indoor League', with local Leicestershire lad Bill Maynard teaching host Fred Trueman the rudiments of the game, albeit that they were using a Leicester Skittles Tables set with Northants skittles, as is often the case in South Leicestershire pubs.

The Boat Inn, Stoke Bruerne

The actual origins of Table Skittles are as shrouded in mystery as most genuinely old games are. It's been suggested that the Northamptonshire game developed as a miniaturised version of Old English Skittles, a very old version of alley skittles that would have been the standard game played at many pubs and clubs in England around the turn of the century. Certainly it shares a playing style in that 'Cheeses' rather than balls are lobbed full-toss at the pins, not rolled, and geographically it sits in an area (or at least on the very edge of an area) known to have been a stronghold for the game until its rapid decline in the post-war years.

That the game is so strongly associated with Northamptonshire is believed to be a consequence of the shoe and boot making industry the county is famous for. A Northants Skittles Table is essentially a construction of the carpenter, but unlike other forms of the game there is a strong element of skilled leatherwork involved too. That the only two 'recorded' manufacturers of these tables are Northamptonshire-based lends credence to the view that the game originated and then spread from Northampton itself, perhaps around the turn of the century. Although it's interesting to note that similar table skittles games developed seemingly independent of the Northants game in Anglia and the South East, areas where Old English Skittles is known to have been played, and the very similar Cambridge Table Skittles game is still played to basically the same rules as the older alley game.

Exactly how old the game might be is of course open to speculation. The oldest manufactured and dated table I've come across is the W T Black & Son model shown above in the bar of the Bulls Head in Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire. The Blacks workshop proudly stencilled their output with what is in effect a serial number on the underside of the table (above). This tells us that the Bulls Head skittles table was just the 4th of what would have been many hundreds produced by Blacks, and that it was ready to leave the workshop in February 1949. So quite an early example, although it's possible there were much earlier non-stencilled tables produced by the company. It's also possible that Blacks and others were exploiting an already existing market for a game that may have been in existence since the turn of the century, possibly a good deal earlier. 

Most of these vintage skittles tables seem to have been made in the post-war years through to the early 1970's, at a time when social pub-going and participation in the numerous games and sports associated with pubs and clubs was at a peak of popularity. There are still many hundreds of examples in existence, and few it seems are ever disposed of when surplus to requirements. Rather they get traded and passed around from one pub or club to another, before eventually ending up in the private hands of players and enthusiasts. They are also a very popular fixture and fundraiser at village fetes, this old Blacks table (above) is raising a few quid in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin at Weston-by-Welland in Leicestershire.

Skittles Table Manufacturers

So the principle manufacturers of these skittles tables were the aforementioned W T Black & Son of Church Lane, Northampton, and the Pepper family of Hardwick near Wellingborough. Both working to a uniform league standard but each producing skittles tables that are subtly different from the other. Whilst John Pepper has continued the family business, turning Boxwood skittles and cheeses from his base in Hardwick village on an antique lathe, there are currently no known producers of Northampton Skittles Tables, though there are certainly a few craftsmen with the skills to produce a table if there were ever a demand.

W T Black & Son 'League Brand' skittles tables are typified by their curvy, three-tier side-walls, and a distinctive sloping steel frame for the 'Hood' at the rear. Later models have very plain square-form legs, but earlier examples were often given quite elaborate turned legs in the fashion of Billiards Tables. The examples shown here at the Coach & Horses, Lubbenham, Leics (above), and the Gardeners Arms in Northampton (left) are so attractively turned and moulded that it seems likely they came from a workshop that produced furniture other than the Skittles Tables they're perhaps best known for. Most Blacks tables can be easily recognised by the two small plastic name plates on the front legs of the table (above), as well as the stencilling underneath of course. Sadly the prominent position of these plates has often resulted in their untimely demise. Wayward cheeses thrown by novice players occasionally hit the front edge of a table and of course the legs, so it's often the case that you'll find a semi-circular or square imprint in the paint where these plates were once affixed. Indeed many have now been replaced by the name plates of craftsmen refurbishing these play-worn old tables.

An early 1900's Skittles Table, partially restored and missing its 'Hood', donated by John Pepper to the Rothwell Arts & Heritage Centre, Northamptonshire

Blacks tables are certainly high quality, but aficionados of the game often refer to the Skittles Tables made by the Pepper family as being the very best. Sadly Peppers tables are not always labelled, and never marked underneath as far as I can tell. The design of their tables changed slightly over the years, making them a little more difficult to identify than the more common Blacks tables. Some Peppers tables have curvy, multi-tiered side walls, very similar to those found on Blacks tables (the table shown above at the Rothwell Arts & Heritage Centre is a good example). Many other Peppers tables have straight sides like the one shown here at the Mikado Pheasant in Kettering. This recently refurbished table shows how the padded leather only covers the face of the side walls, not the edges, and as a consequence these wooden edges are more prone to damage during play, as seen on the table below. This table at the Engineers Arms, Henlow in Bedfordshire is rare and unusual in that the original leather covered playing surface has not been replaced with Lino.

The single most distinctive feature of a Peppers table which marks it out from a Blacks model is the netted 'Hood' at the rear, formed of a steel frame in the shape of a shallow upright box rather than the sloping hood of a Blacks table. The example seen here is on a Peppers table at the Red Lion in Rothwell. However, it's worth pointing out that I've seen a good few examples where a Blacks table has been retro-fitted with a Pepper style hood, and vice-versa, so this is not always a good indicator.

Occasionally I've come across other examples of these Skittles Tables, usually handmade for the pub by a local craftsman or enthusiast, and of widely varying quality. It's certainly possible that there were other makers servicing this important trade (see C. Swinfen below), but in my experience, whenever I've seen another name plate on a table, it's always been appended to a subsequently refurbished W T Blacks or Peppers table.

Restorers & Repairers

Principal amongst those refurbishing and repairing these tables is Arthur Robert Pinckard, a woodworker of Kislingbury in Northamptonshire. I've seen literally dozens of tables with a Pinckard brass plate attached, so many in fact that I initially thought he too was a producer of tables (which of course he may well have been). Indeed my own Blacks table carried a pair of these plates. Mr Pinckard seems to have been the go-to person for repairs and refurbishment of tables in the Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire area following the closure of the W T Black & Son workshop. I believe that Arthur Pinckard passed away in 1990.

Professional refurbishment and repair of skittles tables is currently covered by Colin Swinfen at his workshop in South Kilworth, Leicestershire. Colin is probably the only person specialising in this highly skilled job at this time, and until recently was probably the last person actually building skittles tables to the Blacks design. Other names I've seen appended to refurbished Blacks and Peppers tables are Pat Holt of Rushden, John Tonks, and S. Webb of Northampton.

Pins & Cheeses

The matchday Skittle Pins and Cheeses used in most areas are traditionally made from Boxwood, a blonde, slow-growing hardwood that produces very tough, quite 'springy' skittles when varnished, and this certainly contributes to a 'lively' game. Pins stand at around 6 inches tall, and are turned to be quite chunky and top-heavy. If anything, there's a fair bit more variation in the size of Cheeses than there is with Pins, but around 4 inches diameter and 1 1//2 inches thick seems to be the maximum size for a Cheese which fits snuggly in the hand. Plastic cheeses seem to be slightly smaller, and it may be that they are produced to a specified weight as much as size.

Whilst the shape and size of skittles pins is standard, other woods have certainly been used in the past. I've even had a set that was made from a dense red or purple wood with metal ferrules screwed to the bottom. South Leicestershire and the leagues around Rugby have gone-over entirely to a man-made material, the pins and cheeses made from the same yellow plastic that Shoe Lasts are typically made from. I imagine this is down to expediency. Boxwood is increasingly expensive and hard to come by, the timber needing several years to season, and the supply of turned wood from John Pepper necessarily limited. They are also somewhat perishable. A new set of pins and cheeses are perhaps good for no more than 3 or 4 years of what can be fairly punishing Summer and Winter league play before unacceptable damage relegates them to use as a practice set. Plastic pins perform in a very similar 'springy' way to Boxwood, and whilst they are certainly not cheap, a set will last pretty-much forever.

League Play

Team Spirit at The Horseshoe, Wilby, Northants

In common with so many regional pub games, Table Skittles leagues seem to prefer hiding their light under a bushel. Very few have an online presence, and sadly the match reports, results, and league tables that have been a feature of local newspapers for decades are now few and far between. Sometimes the only indication there's a thriving league operating in a particular area is a handwritten fixture lists on a pub noticeboard, unless of course you happen to arrive at the pub during a match. So it's hard to pin down just how many leagues are active at this time, but perhaps if we total Winter and Summer competitions, there may be around a hundred covering all parts of the wider skittling areas.

All competition revolves around the home-and-away fixtures that determine a teams position on the all-important League Table, but also important are the numerous knockout competitions. These range from Singles and Doubles, through to team Cup Competitions, as well as the Beer Leg and often awards for highest scores through the season. Not forgetting the dreaded Wooden Spoon. Mens and Ladies Leagues co-exist in some of the more populated areas like Northampton town, but for the most part, Northamptonshire Table Skittles is played in mixed leagues, with an age range that we might generalise as being from 18 to 80. Some of the finest players I've seen in action have been at both ends of this age spectrum, Table Skittles generally favouring natural talent and long acquired experience rather than the rash enthusiasm of novices like myself.

As already stated, the rules of the game vary widely from league to league. When I played for my local pub, the Red Lion in Middleton, the midweek league played as a team of seven, but each player was matched against an opposing player for their part in the evenings competition, the winner being the first to win seven legs. That meant you could win (or lose) your match anywhere between 7-0 and 7-6 legs.  This is an important distinction as the winning 'team' is decided from the aggregate of all legs won by the whole team of seven players. So even if most players in your team won their matches, but won narrowly, your team could still lose on the night if one player lost 7-0 by dragging the aggregate score of the team down.

The Friday league was also played as a team of seven, but with each team setting a total score which the opposing team then aim to beat over an odd number of legs. A Beer Leg is often played at the end of the night, and to these same rules, the first team to win three legs taking the kitty. The chalkboard shown here is from a low scoring 3-0 win by the home side at the Red Lion, nobody scoring more than a thoroughly average '7' in the final game. So two different ways of playing the game found in just one pub, a microcosm of the bewildering array of different versions found throughout the four counties.

Other games I've seen played on a Northants Skittles Table are Sunday afternoon 'small-stake' Killer sessions (Sunday seems to be a traditional day for these all-comer casual games), in which all players have three lives, the aim being to match or beat the previous players score or lose a life. I've also seen a the team from the Catholic Club in Market Harborough (closed) warm up for a midweek match with a game of Four Corners, an old skittles game where only the four corner pins are set up, the aim being to clear them in the least number of throws.

Dimensions of a W T Blacks Skittle Table

The following images and meticulous measurements have been supplied by James Masters of Masters Traditional Games, and are based on his own W T Black & Son Skittles Table. They are reproduced here with kind permission. James occasionally has old and refurbished tables for sale from his website.

A Shove Ha'penny Restored

The traditional bar-room games of Shove Ha'penny and Pushpenny are probably the ones I'd most like to see revived at the pub. These are games of skill and strategy rather than luck, games for long, boozy afternoons with friends, as well as the sober competition of local league play. They take up almost no additional room in the bar, and are games that people of all ages, myself included, seem to enjoy immensely when given the chance to play them. Very good quality old and modern boards are common and cheap to acquire if you know where to look, and needless to say, the old adage that it takes 'minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master' holds true with these simple shoving games.

I've got a few of these old boards myself, most of which have seen some action over an afternoon pint or two. In truth, I've got way more planks of highly polished hardwood with lines scored into them than I'll ever need, but as with most things in life, when you see one that takes your fancy it's hard not to buy yet another example for the collection.

Take this board for example, a typically unloved 'vintage' Shove Ha'penny that caught my eye for a number of reasons. It's quite a large one for a start, clearly handmade by an enthusiast of the game. It's these 'shed-built' boards that interest me the most, and when well-used and not too mucked-about with, they often play better than manufactured boards. It's the reclaimed timber that it was made from that's determined the oversize nature of this board. The rougher underside (below) suggests a series of Oak planks, possibly an old cupboard door or bar counter, an early example of upcycling what might otherwise have been burned.

I think it's fair to say that whoever made this board was probably not a woodworker by trade. Most of the handiwork is solid and functional, made from whatever offcuts were to hand rather than from scratch. It looks homemade rather than 'crafted', but nevertheless it's a handsome thing that I felt needed bringing back into use with a little tlc. Because old Shove Ha'penny boards like this often come with a few problems that need fixing.

The principal issue I had with this board was the entirely unnecessary coat of clear varnish that had been slopped onto the surface. Varnish, no matter how carefully applied, is rarely an appropriate surface for a Shove Ha'penny Board. At best it's too smooth for a polished coin to glide across properly, no wood-grain leading to a lack of airflow under the coins which tends to make them 'dig-in' or stick. Worse still is when the varnish is rough and/or sticky, making it an unacceptably slow board. The very best wooden Shove Ha'penny boards are either entirely untreated, or at most 'naturally' polished. The patina of age developing over many years of play, the only 'polish' coming from beer and tobacco stained hands 'rubbing-up' the surface, certainly not the addition of wax or worse. A naturally smooth Shove Ha'penny or Pushpenny board gives a fast, even, precision playing surface that lifts the game to another level in skilled hands. So the first job was to get the paint stripper out and carefully remove this varnish layer, a long and tedious job, but well worth the effort.

That someone took the trouble to mount two George V Pennies into the board was another selling point for me. Pointless embellishments like this are just the kind of thing I'd do myself if I was making something similar, though given this is a Shove Ha'penny, I like to think I'd get the denomination right! Nevertheless, it's a nice touch. Another feature that's more often seen on homemade Shove Ha'pennys is the drilled holes down each side of the board. These are designed to take small pegs or matchsticks for scoring, three per bed, and typically for a homemade board these are more than a little higgledy-piggledy. It's an interesting touch but not one I tend to favour for scoring, a small piece of chalk does the job in a much less fiddly way.

After several hours of careful scraping, rubbing and scrubbing with white spirit and fine grade wire wool, this was the finished playing surface revealed. Even now it has a few minor, and one more serious issue. The actual grain is lovely and smooth making it a reasonably 'fast' board, but it's not exactly an 'even' surface. There are a few knots in the wood that would probably be unnacceptable for competition, and the odd gentle undulation here and there, but to be honest these don't affect the progress of coins up the board to a significant degree.

The major issue is a crack that has unfortunately lifted a little toward the top end of the playing surface. I say 'crack', it's actually where the planks of wood have been joined and have shrunk back a little over time, a common occurrence in Shove Ha'penny's made from multiple pieces of timber rather than a single solid board (though single piece boards are more liable to warp). This crack is a problem, though it certainly doesn't make the board unplayable. At some point I'll have to take an orbital sander to the surface and even things up.

The final job was fitting a baton to the underside, the 'table stop' that may or may not have existed before but was certainly missing when I bought it. This is a tricky job that if done badly can ruin the board, and particularly tricky when the timber is relatively thin, as it is here. If the screws used are too long, or you've countersunk the holes just a little bit too generously, there's every chance the steel tips will protrude onto the playing surface, something of a disaster that thankfully I managed to avoid on this occasion.