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.