The Black Horse - Foxton, Leicestershire

On the increasingly rare occasions that I come across a Northamptonshire Skittles Table in a pub that I wasn’t previously aware of, it gives me hope that the game will not in fact entirely disappear in my lifetime. Talk to anyone involved in the game however, and the story remains pretty bleak. The area around North Northamptonshire, South Leicestershire and to a much lesser extent Rutland, was a true hotbed of the game when I moved to the area some 25 years ago. Perhaps half of all rural village pubs had a Skittles Table, and almost every club had at least one table. The major towns of the area, Market Harborough and Kettering, gave their names to active leagues of multiple divisions, and boasted several pubs and clubs where the game thrived, or perhaps in some cases merely survived.

My understanding is that there are now just two Skittles venues in Market Harborough, with only the Conservative Club actually participating in league play. Kettering town centre has a very well-used table at the Alexandra Arms, and perhaps another three or four in estate pubs and clubs further afield, well down on previous figures of perhaps more than a dozen. The situation in rural areas is very much worse of course. Where pubs have managed to escape closure, it's often at the expense of space for games of any kind, dining being the only realistic route to survival. All is not lost though...

The Domino in Corby has a good table now, and a Ladies team playing in the Islip League, probably the first time that Table Skittles has been played in the town's environs for decades. I also have to remind myself that these substantial, craftsman built Skittles Tables are rarely lost to the skip. When a pub closes or a table is deemed surplus to requirements, it's often rescued by the locals and removed to the safety of a garage or village hall. Perhaps awaiting the day when there's a resurgence in popularity of the game, as there most surely will be. Even now these tables occasionally reappear unexpectedly in pubs, as is the case at The Domino in Corby.

I caught sight of a venerable old Skittles Table earlier this week, and in a pub I wouldn't have expected to find the game. It was at the end of a muddy Winter canal walk from Union Wharf in Market Harborough to Foxton, a village best known for it's proximity to an impressive Lock Flight and historic Inclined Plane on the Grand Union Canal. A hugely popular destination for tourists and dog walkers, but I wasn't there for the Locks, I was aiming for a pub, the equally historic Black Horse.

The Black Horse sits at the top of the village, a stones-throw from the ancient village Church and conveniently close to a wide and well-tended footpath down to the Locks (which itself has two pubs). I hadn't been to this pub for at least 30 years, back when it was a well regarded Marston's Brewery pub. Of the two pubs in the village back then it this and the nearby Bell at Gumley that were our preferred choice. Today it was also my preference given that it's and all-day opener, a rare thing for a village pub these days, and its neighbour the Shoulder of Mutton wouldn't be open until late afternoon.

It's a nicely refurbished pub, recently under new management. The separate bar is the kind of space you could happily spend a few hours of an afternoon, and there are bar games on the windowsills like Shut The Box, Cards and Dominoes to accompany the beer. Smart but not overdone, unlike so many pub interiors now, the Black Horse still feels like an old pub and I liked it a lot.

It was on the way to the entrance that something caught my eye. Whilst the bar still has its Dartboard, across from the main body of the pub is a separate Games Room. If the Skittles Table hadn't been setup in line with the open doorway I guess I'd never have investigated, but there it was, a vintage Northamptonshire (or Leicestershire) Skittles Table, sharing space with the Pool Table.

Whilst it's always a pleasure to see a Skittles Table in a village pub, it's even better if the owner happens to be on hand for a bit of a chat. Turns out this table was rescued from the old Trades & Labour Club in Market Harborough, now long gone but I've been led to believe by those who played there that this is one of several tables the club had during the game's heyday.

Chatting with the owner of this table was like a roll-call of lost pubs, clubs and venues for the game though. He played for a team at the long-closed Horse & Trumpet in Medbourne, a former Phipps (NBC) house, thatched, Grade II listed, and a bit of a timewarp pub that many in the area remember with great fondness. Clearly a keen enthusiast of the game, I guess he'd been waiting for a chance to set this table up somewhere appropriate, somewhere it would be appreciated. Table Skittles is a noisy game of course, not suitable for dining pubs, and often difficult to accommodate even when there's a public bar, so a separate Games Room like this, not hidden away but open to all-comers, is an ideal location for the game.

The really good news though is that the pub has now got a team up for the local Kibworth League, playing for fun and clearly learning the ropes, but that will hopefully change in time. Skittles is an addictive pastime just ripe for a dose of nostalgia to bring it back into favour.