Humber Hotel, Coventry

There are currently just two leagues in the UK for the rare game of Bagatelle. The Chester & District Bagatelle League is probably the bigger of the two, and possibly the more healthy with regard to it's future given the highly proactive committee behind it. Other leagues in Wales and Liverpool have folded in recent times, leaving just the Coventry Bagatelle League to make up the numbers. Quite why the game has survived in areas as far apart as the West Midlands and Cheshire is anyones guess, and given the scarcity of Bagatelle tables, which only occasionally come up for sale, it's not a game that's likely to see a revival of fortunes any time soon.

Bagatelle, sometimes known as Old English Bagatelle to help distinguish it from the smaller pin-table game, was once an extremely popular pub, club, and parlour game. As common in its day as the cue sports of Billiards and Snooker in fact. That the game has declined so dramatically, to the point that few will have even heard of it, is a reflection of the ever-changing fashions in pub gaming. It seems likely that the game of Bar Billiards overtook Bagatelle in popularity at some point, and this in turn has been largely superseded in pubs and clubs by the modern import, American Pool.

The game of Bagatelle has many similarities with Bar Billiards. Played from one end of a relatively small table, the goal is to pot balls into a series of cups, each bearing a different scoring number, the highest of which is the central cup which scores 9. There are of course numerous rules and technical details which make Bagatelle the skillful and highly competitive game it is. Played as a singles, doubles, or team game, the aim is usually to score the highest break. In the Coventry League however, teams of five compete, with each match decided by the first to reach a score of 121.

As in most regional pub games, the rules, and often the equipment used vary considerably. Bagatelle tables in the Coventry league are slightly larger than those found in Chester for example. Another obvious difference is the rounded 'baulk' end of the table, though this doesn't seem to have any bearing on play, and Coventry tables have two side-pockets at the scoring end of the table. Another major difference of play is that in the Coventry league, players are obliged to 'nominate' the cup they aim to pot a scoring ball into, which perhaps makes it the more skillful of the two versions currently played.

The Coventry league has shrunk considerably in the last few years. A rule book and fixture list of the mid 90's which was kindly given to me by the licensee of the Humber Inn, lists around 30 venues for the game, with play spread over two leagues of over a dozen teams each. This number is now down to around 7 venues, and all but one of these are social clubs.

The last pub venue for the game in Coventry is the Humber Hotel, located on the edge of the town centre near Gosford Green Park. This area was once the home of Humber Ltd, and was one of Coventry's principal sites for motor vehicle manufacture. The pub would have originally been built as part of the estate housing the factory workers, and is commemorated by an image of a vintage Humber car on the pubs swinging sign.

The Humber Hotel is a classic large-scale Edwardian pub of a type which is still fairly common throughout the West Midlands, the Birmingham area in particular. Shockingly, the pub was destined for demolition at the time current owners Eddie & Lynne Sheridan took it on over 20 years ago. Since then the pub has seen numerous changes, but still retains a good deal of its original period splendour, and even though most of the internal walls have been removed over time, the original multi-room layout can still easily be discerned.

The lounge (above) has been recreated with a modern partition which separates it from the public bar. This glazed screen matches beautifully with the existing wood panelling, so much so that I initially thought it was an original feature. It's in this comfortable room that the pubs Bagatelle Table resides. A vintage Padmore & Sons of Birmingham table, sourced from another venue following catastrophic damage to the Humber's original table. Most aspects of a quality cue-sport table like this can be repaired following damage, but when the table at the Humber was dropped during renovation work at the pub, the all-important slate bed was broken, and the repair considered too costly so another table was procured locally.

A 'Certificate of Conformance' hangs adjacent to the Bagatelle Table (above), and shows that the table at the Humber Hotel has been inspected and complies with the standards of competition set out in the rules. Note also the wooden 'Bell-Push' on the panelling below, one of several dotted around the lounge, and originally used to summon waiter service in the days when the lounge was served from a hatch to the main bar.

On entering the main bar area, it's easy to see the line of the original corridor which would have separated the 'Smoke' on the left-hand side (shown above with Pool Table), and the Public Bar to the right (below). This traditional 'drinking corridor' would have originally been served from a hatch on the left of the main bar counter, and some of the original patterned tile-work is still in situ in this area. In front of the servery is the pubs Dartboard. A large trophy cabinet near the Pool Table attests to the success of the various teams that play out of the Humber.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt. 21

The Bagatelle Table shown here has been squeezed into a room adjoining the main bar of the Royal Oak at Hoole in Chester. Hoole is a small village suburb of Chester, around 15 minutes walk out from the town centre, and very convenient for arrivals at the nearby rail station.

The Royal Oak is a friendly multi-room locals pub, a venue for conversation, good beer, and playing the local speciality of Bagatelle. The pub fields a team in the Chester & District Bagatelle League.

It's perhaps hard for us to appreciate just how widely played and popular the game of Quoits was in the pre and post-war years. Despite being played on Quoits Fields at pubs, clubs, and public recreation grounds the length and breadth of the country, little now remains to remind us of its importance as a game to the mostly working class men who played it. The Quoits Beds themselves are mostly all gone, and the trophies and records of the game have not endured in the same way that other pub and club games such as skittles have. Which is not to say that the game has entirely died out, indeed there are still several active, albeit much smaller leagues operating in parts of Anglia, Scotland, Wales, and the north of England.

A good indication of how widespread and popular the game of Quoits once was can be seen in the images above and below. This magnificent silver Boss, illustrating a Quoits game in progress, sits at the centre of a substantial trophy shield which acknowledges national Quoiting success in the small Rutland village of Ketton. Quoits was a very popular game in Rutland, no less so in Ketton which was home to at least four quoiting beds, and most impressive of all, a three times All England Champion in local cement works foreman Arthur Knox. The full shield, presented by the Peterborough & District Quoiting League, can be seen on the right of the team photograph below, and is now proudly displayed at the Ketton Sports & Social Club.

The last remaining Quoits Bed in the village was within the grounds of the club but is now tarmac'd over as part of the car park. The club is still very active within the village, with most modern games represented, including Bowls, Cribbage, Darts, Dominoes, and Rutlands current favourite throwing game, Pétanque.

The 'Skittle Room' at Leicesters Durham Ox is in truth more of a covered courtyard which serves the double function of a very well appointed smoking shelter. The kind of skittles played here is the thoroughly local Leicester version of Table Skittles, with its thinner pins, smaller cheeses, and slightly different table geometry to the better known Northamptonshire game. I'm not sure how often the table gets used these days, certainly the pub no longer fields a team in any of the Leicester Leagues, but it's good to see such a relative rarity of pub gaming survive in such good shape.

The pub itself is located in an area of the town which has been hit hard by changing demographics, and is one of the last of its type on this side of the city centre (see also the nearby Bridle Lane Tavern). The interior of the pub is very well maintained, and attracts a good local crowd for televised sport, Pool and Darts.

Spital Vaults, Chester

You only have to look at the busy 'What's On' board at The Spital Vaults to get an idea of how much the locals appreciate their sport and gaming. Darts, Dominoes, Pool, and a Sunday night Quiz are the staples of pub gaming at back-street boozers like this, and in my view a very good sign that you're about to enter a proper community pub rather than a bar or restaurant pretending to be a pub.

Add the local speciality of Bagatelle into the mix and the Spital is well worth the short walk out of Chester town centre for a pint and a game or two.

The Spital Vaults have a team in the Chester & District Bagatelle League, finishing mid-table in the 2013/14 season. In common with all the Bagatelle venues in Chester, the table at the Spital Vaults is free to play, and you'll be made very welcome for a game outside of the all important Wednesday league nights.

Ye Olde Cottage Inn, Chester

I've stated on several occasions here on this blog that in the rush to devote space to dining, or simply cramming more vertical drinkers in, town centre pubs are rapidly becoming Pub Game free zones. For example, venues for most forms of the game of skittles are now almost entirely located in suburban, or rural village locations, often making it hard to track down a game when visiting larger towns and cities. Even the humble Darts Board has become a rarity on the town centre circuit.

There are of course exceptions. Venues with Bagatelle Tables in the Chester area are refreshingly easy to find, in what is still a fairly compact city blessed with a good number of pubs. Most of the venues are located little more than a 15 minute walk from the town centre, and many are particularly handy for the rail station. There's even a solitary club venue located within the old town walls. A map giving the location of venues for Bagatelle is not particularly well sign-posted on the otherwise excellent Chester & District Bagatelle League website, but can be found here, and is I believe reliably up to date.

Ye Olde Cottage Inn is one such venue, located on the eastern side of Chester on the way out to the leafy suburbs of the 'Hotel Quarter' at Hoole. It is also very handy for arrivals at the nearby rail station. It's a terrific corner local, cosy and welcoming, with an open fire which pumps out more than enough heat to warm the whole pub through the Winter months. The pub is well supplied with, and has a very strong emphasis on traditional pub games. Darts, Dominoes, and Pool are all played in local leagues, as of course is the much rarer game of Bagatelle.

League Bagatelle play seems to have returned (?) to the Cottage in 2011. Since then the pub team have steadily crept up the league table, and at the time of writing are sitting fourth at the tail end of the 2013/14 Winter Season. Various cup competitions are also a feature of the league, including a recently introduced 351 Cup. In this competition, teams of four players play alternate 'sticks' against the opposing team, aiming to finish on exactly 351 points in the fewest number of balls. The Cottage were the winners of the current Winter season 351 Cup.

The sunken 'Cups' on a Bagatelle Table number '1-9', with the highest scoring located across the centre, and the central cup scoring '9'. A maximum score for a 'Stick' (a single players turn at the table) is 54, and requires all of the balls to be potted, with the Black (which scores double) in the central '9' pocket as shown above. I'm not sure how often maximum scores occur during a typical season. All I can say is that I've certainly never managed to get close to achieving the feat myself. I believe that scores in the 30's or 40's are more usual for a competent player.

Bagatelle

Wall of Bagetelles at House of Marbles, Bovey Tracey, Devon. This image has kindly been made available under a Creative Commons License by Glamhag.

I would hazard a guess that most people, if they recognised it at all, would be most likely associate the game of Bagatelle with a vintage 'parlour' game, many examples of which can be seen in the image above. This Bagatelle game was a kind of early pinball which came in innumerable different designs, and was principally a game of chance, and not especially associated with pub gaming.

It's perhaps only in the Cheshire city of Chester that a very different interpretation of the game of Bagatelle is more widely known. The game known as Bagatelle, which is still played at league level in Chester, is a much more skillful 'cue-sport' game than the colourful amusements shown above, and was once widespread and popular in pubs and clubs throughout the country.

This version of Bagatelle (right and below), sometimes known as Old English or Victorian Bagatelle, is believed to date back to the early 19th century. A game which seems to have developed alongside Billiards, and one which may have suffered the decline which makes it such a rarity today upon the introduction of Bar Billiards, which the game of Bagatelle superficially resembles. A comprehensive resume of the development of Bagatelle from its early days to the present can be found here, and I don't propose to repeat it on this blog. Sufficient to say that at one time Bagatelle was very widely played in Britain, and presumably much further afield throughout Europe and the wider British Empire. Indeed tables can still be found in North America where the game was also very popular.

Given that Bagatelle has now almost entirely disappeared from pubs and clubs in Britain, it's not surprising that so few people will have come across or even know of the games existence. A handful of antique tables can still be found in the Coventry area, and some form of competition is believed to take place in North Wales, but the current hotbed of Bagatelle play is Chester, where remarkably the game has seen some measure of growth in recent years.

The table shown here for example, which still bears its original J Ashcroft & Co label, was only recently installed at the Bawn Lodge bar following extensive refurbishment (detailed here). The table is now in regular use for league play alongside around a dozen more such tables in pubs and clubs, found mainly on the outskirts of the town centre. Outside of league play, all these tables are available for free play, and the friendly and enthusiastic members of the local league will often be on hand to offer advice on rules and technique.

The Chester & District Bagatelle League may well be the very last of its kind still operating in the UK. Eleven teams are currently listed on the excellent website, and the league also hosts an 'Open' competition in October.

Despite the apparent huge popularity of the game at one time, tables of the standard shown above are now relatively rare, and the league are always on the look out for examples which can be refurbished and brought back into use. Antique tables, often in need of extensive repair and renovation, occasionally surface at auctions or through the antiques trade, and it's also likely that other tables remain in clubs throughout the country, perhaps dismantled and lying unused like the one at the Nottingham Oddfellows Club in Leicester shown below. This table was refurbished and had its surface re-covered only recently, but was rarely used at the club and has now been taken out of service. The Mahogany frame is in storage, and the slate currently lies safely below one of the clubs two Billiard Tables, perhaps awaiting a revival of interest in the game by club members.

Numerous games can be played on a Bagatelle table, with league play a fairly straightforward scoring game for two players. The basic idea being to pocket as many of the nine balls in the numbered cups as possible to build a score. The black ball scores double, and therefore this would ideally be potted in the central '9' cup for maximum scoring potential. A good video detailing the rules of play can be seen here.

The Bagatelle Table shown above and below is my own 'Baby Bagatelle', a 6 foot long fold-out version for home use. These were also once very popular as 'parlour' games, and a good many still exist and appear regularly in the antiques and online auction trade in varying states of repair. This one is fairly typical of these smaller tables which were available in a number of sizes up to 8 foot long. Constructed within a polished Mahogany case, often furnished with a small lock, and with a lighter wooden bed rather than the smooth slate of full-size Bagatelle tables. The only significant difference in design is the provision of boxwood 'Cribbage' style scoring holes down each side of the table. This one plays well enough, though in common with practically all these old examples, the cushions have hardened with time, and the baize is showing signs of wear.

The wooden arched construction shown below was often included as standard with these tables. Many different games would have originally been played on a standard Bagatelle Table, including one called Mississippi which involved cueing balls off the side cushions and into these numbered arches to build a score.

I will be featuring a few of the Chester venues for Bagatelle in future posts on this blog.

Blue Bell, Belmesthorpe, Rutland

It's been a long time since village pubs could rely for their success on beer sales and local drinkers alone. A quality dining experience is all but essential these days particularly if rural pubs want to attract visitors from outside the immediate area. But sadly for those of us who like a pub to be just that, drinkers can sometimes be effectively excluded from a pub in favour of the all pervasive dining experience.

It's often argued that when a struggling pub is reinvented as a successful dining venue, on balance it's a positive thing because at least the pub has been saved from closure. Certainly a closed pub is serving no-ones needs, but where I disagree with this thinking is when a pub has become so singularly focused on the dining experience that it is to all intents a restaurant with bar and not a pub at all. In these cases, a pub has not in fact been saved, but rather a restaurant has been created at the expense of the pub stock. Of course how common this situation has become is largely down to your interpretation of what a pub is. I know there are many people who believe that so long as the bar has a handpump or two on it, ideally dispensing something from a small or local brewery, it's still fulfilling its role as a pub. I believe there's much more to a pub than the beer. What sets a good pub apart from a restaurant is that it should include at least some space conducive to wider social interaction, perhaps even with people outside of your own social clique. Restaurants, and many of the more upmarket dining pubs simply don't encourage this kind of social mingling. They are not pubs in my view.

Which brings me to the Blue Bell pub in Belmesthorpe, a very good example of how to cater for the all important food trade, yet still maintain its essential 'pubiness'. Not only does landlord Aubrey Johnson win awards for the quality of the beer on offer, but he has also made every effort to maintain the pub as the hub of the community. The bar is still a place to drink and chat, and games are still an important part of the mix at this community local.

The league staples of Darts, Cribbage, and Dominoes are played, with other games in the pipeline including a recently acquired Bagatelle, and plans for a Devil Amongst The Tailors. It's not surprising that games play such an important role at the Blue Bell, the landlord previously played Pushpenny in the nearby Stamford league, and still keeps his own board polished and ready at the pub.

The Plough Inn, Old Radford, Nottingham

In common with many large towns and cities, you'll be hard pressed to find much in the way of interesting pub games in the centre of Nottingham. The closer to the busy shopping areas of a town you get, the higher the rents, and inevitably space in pubs tends to be devoted to the revenue generating pastimes of vertical drinking and dining. With one or two notable exceptions (which I'll be featuring here at a later date), you have to take a stroll to the fringes of town to find anything like a traditional game, even Darts can be hard to find in the centre.

The Plough at Old Radford is well worth the stroll out of town, not only for the comprehensive selection of pub games, but also the wide range of excellent real ales from the adjacent Nottingham Brewery. Firmly traditional in character, featuring two separate bars served from a central servery, cosy real fires in the Winter (or indeed the wet and windy Summer when I visited), a pub just as it should be.

Perhaps the most interesting game featured at the pub is the long alley skittles in the small garden at the rear. Quite a rarity for Nottingham now, most of these being located further afield in the Notts and Derby area.

For a throw to count in this version of Long Alley Skittles, one foot must remain in this hole when throwing the wooden balls (Woods), which must bounce once before hitting the front King Pin. In this image you can just make out the loose sheet of metal in front of the pins. A throw must also clear this to count, and the loud rattle of the metal is a clear indication of a foul throw. Opinions vary on the positioning of the King Pin, some stating it must be at the front of the diamond pattern, other in the middle. The licensee of the Plough helpfully suggested that 'it all depends...' which I'm taking as the definitive answer. On the right of this image, and below right, can be seen the yellow piping used to return the Woods to the throwing end

The alcove for the Darts Board is also home to the Dictionary & Games Corner, home to a Bagatelle, as well as the Dominoes, Cards and Cribbage Boards for scoring.

A nice modern Shove Ha'penny Board is available on request at the bar, in common with many such boards, now rarely used. A Devil Amongst The Taylors table is also available, though currently awaiting the replacement of a missing pin.