Red Rover, Red Rover! E-Book

Kunak McGann

• Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 109

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Inside, Outside, Donkeys' Tails Were you the local Elastics champion growing up? Did you spend every waking moment obsessively playing Kerbs with your best mates? Have you never had more fun than racing to Tip the Can? Then this is the book for you. Packed with classics like Marbles, Conkers, Bulldog, and Hopscotch, party games like Blind Man's Buff and Snap Apple, and rainy day fun with Battleship, Murder in the Dark, and paper Fortune-Tellers. 'What you need', how to play, handy tips, 'risk' ratings and stories of great craic will whisk you back to those carefree days of childhood and, if your creaky old bones are up to it, inspire you to get out with the kids and revel in those games all over again. Coming, coming, ready or not, keep your place or you'll be … caught!  

Leseprobe

Kunak McGann grew up in Drogheda back in the days when electronic tablets were unheard of (she can still remember the excitement when the family got a ZX Spectrum – ‘Luna Crabs’, anyone?) and playing out on the street was the most fun kids could imagine. Eventually, like everyone, she had to grow up and get a proper job. So now she works in publishing and lives in Kildare with her husband, two lively sons and one chilled-out dog.

FOR MY BOYS, MILO AND ESBEN

My thanks to Joe for everything, always going above and beyond. Thanks to Mum for her unwavering encouragement for as long as I can remember, and to Oisín, Marek, Erika and Darius for being the best playmates and partners in crime growing up. They still are. Thanks to Martha, Sarah and Ailbhe for digging up those memories of childhood rhymes (Just. Like. That.).

Thanks to all the lovely folk at The O’Brien Press for their enthusiasm for this idea from the very beginning and for letting me pick their brains on all those games (especially Claire, Helen, Bex and Elena)! And great big thanks to Emma for her creative touch, to Graham for the great cover, and to Susan for her thoughtful editing and inspired suggestions.

CONTENTS

ARE YOU COMING OUT TO PLAY?

TEAM GAMES

Red Rover

Relievo/Capture the Flag

Charge!

Rounders

BALL GAMES

Scot/Spud

Kerbs/Kerby

Space Invaders

Dodgeball

Marbles

Queenie I-O

Donkey

Piggy in the Middle

A is for . . .

Sevens

Jacks

ROPE/STRING GAMES

Elastics/French Elastics/Chinese Skipping

Colours in the Rainbow

Skipping

Heights

Conkers

Cat’s Cradle

CHASE/HIDING GAMES

Tig/Tag (Off-the-Ground Tig/TV Tig/Stuck-in-the-Mud/Shadow Tig/Chain Tig/Catch-a-Man/Manhunt)

Bulldog

Colours

Races (Three-legged/Egg and Spoon/Wheelbarrow)

Hide and Seek/Sardines

Forty Forty/Tip the Can/Kick the Can

Nick-nacks/Thunder and Lightning

SINGING/CIRCLE GAMES

Clapping Games (A Sailor Went to Sea)

Oranges and Lemons/London Bridge is Falling Down

Ring-a-Ring a Rosie

The Farmer Wants a Wife

Duck, Duck, Goose

Concentration

TURN-TAKING GAMES

Hopscotch

Letters in Your Name/Aunties and Uncles

Grandmother’s Footsteps/Red Light, Green Light

What Time is it, Mr Wolf?

Mother, May I?/Simon Says

Sleeping Lions/Dead Lions

Slaps

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Poison

Coins

Polo

The Human Knot

Car Games (I Spy/20 Questions/Red Car, Blue Car)

PARTY GAMES

Halloween Games (Snap Apple/Apple Bobbing/Grape in the Flour)

Pass the Parcel

Musical Chairs/Musical Bumps/Musical Statues

Murder in the Dark/Wink Murder

Blind Man’s Buff/Squeak, Piggy, Squeak

Chinese Whispers/Rumours

PEN AND PAPER GAMES

Fortune-teller

Boy, Girl/Categories

Confessions

X’s and O’s/Noughts and Crosses/Tic Tac Toe

Dots and Boxes

Hangman

Battleship

WHO’S ‘ON’?

ARE YOU COMING OUT TO PLAY?

Remember those heady days when you left the house in the morning, played out on the street or in the fields all day long and didn’t come back in until teatime? Sometimes it was just two of you playing Kerbs or Sevens, practising hard, or maybe a few more of you wearing holes in your socks playing Skipping or Elastics.

On rainy days, it was retreating inside for Murder in the Dark, Boy/Girl or Battleship. But then there was that perfect day, when the sun was shining, when everyone seemed to be at a loose end, when the older kids didn’t mind playing with the younger ones for once, and someone suggested Bulldog or Red Rover; and you will forever remember the unadulterated joy of charging recklessly across a field with your best pals by your side, or of swooping in at the end of a game of Forty Forty or Tip the Can with an ‘I save all!’

Some of the games in this book are safe as houses and some are downright dodgy, but nearly all of the time, nearly all of the kids will be just fine. These games are versions I used to play (with varying degrees of success, and varying numbers of bumps and bruises) back in the 1980s. Growing up on an estate of about forty houses, most of which had at least two kids, there was rarely a shortage of playmates. There was never a shortage of ideas for games either, the range of which I didn’t quite appreciate until I started putting pen to paper.

This is not an official directory, and the versions I explain here may differ a little – or a lot – from what you played yourself. Why not use this collection as inspiration to dig up your own memories of the games you played way back when, and go outside and play them with the children in your life.

RED ROVER

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

A gang of kids – eight at the very least, but better with lots more – and an open area to play in.

THE BIG IDEA

Players are divided into two teams that stand facing each other, holding hands in a chain (sounds romantic, but it isn’t). One team picks a player from the opposite team and shouts at the top of their voice (Braveheart-style): ‘Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Sean over’. Sean then runs at full pelt towards their chain, attempting to break through a pair of held hands. If he manages to, he gets to choose a member of that team to come back and join his team with him. If he doesn’t, he joins their team.

BEST STRATEGY

    Spreading your biggest/strongest players across the team makes sense.

    When picking someone to call over, choose the person least likely to have the strength, body mass or fast-moving momentum to break your hand-holding chain.

PHYSICAL RISK – 9/10

Most of the risk rests with the smaller/slighter players, who are targeted as the weak link in a chain (no matter what kind of giant, yeti-like pal is holding their hand). So, no problem there, then.

SURVIVAL TIPS

    Should generally be played on a smooth and, if at all possible, soft surface. Avoid playing on solid concrete or roads with vicious potholes, or near any sort of vertical structures (brick walls, telegraph poles, etc.).

    Oh, and that little girl from No. 8 that looks like she’s the weak link has a grip like you wouldn’t believe and will die before she lets you through.

OVERALL PLAYABILITY

This can be a rough game, but it’s easy to grasp the rules, and has great playability. Generally only finishes up when all the big guys end up on the one team, or there’s a definite, have-to-report-this-to-the-parents kind of injury.

RELIEVO/CAPTURE THE FLAG

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Enough players to make up two teams of at least four each (but much better with more), and a play area big enough for two jails and plenty of space in between. For Capture the Flag, you’ll also need a flag (or T-shirt, etc.).

THE BIG IDEA

The name of this game has a few variations depending on where you grew up – Relevio, Relievo, Ringolevio - but for us it was always ‘Lievo!’ Players are split into two teams, and each team has a ‘jail’ or ‘den’ (a marked-out area in a field or between two pillars, etc.). The object of the exercise is to catch opposing team members and put them in jail, while evading capture yourself. Those of a more heroic bent can make a solo-run to the other team’s jail, shout ‘Relievo!’ and free all their jailed team mates. The team that manages to capture all of the other team wins (and lords it over them for days).

VARIATION

A variation of this game, Capture the Flag, has the added objective of getting hold of the other team’s (hidden) flag. Grab that flag and win the game.

BEST STRATEGY

    Sneakiness is a great asset for this game – either while tracking your prey, or trying to keep a low profile and staying out of jail – and nothing will top the execution of a co-ordinated surprise attack on the other team’s jail.

    Catching the other team is important, but keeping them in jail is equally important, so have your most solid and formidable players as jailers, while your fastest, sneakiest runners are out catching.

PHYSICAL RISK – 5/10

A lot of this game can involve either standing around in jail, or standing around guarding people in jail, and the physical risk is mostly in the hot pursuit of someone, or when you’re running for your life.

SURVIVAL TIPS

Find out what you’re good at in this game and stick with it. If you’re fast, get out catching; if you’re buff, get to jailing. If you’re neither fast nor buff, probably best to hang close to your own jail and bask in the reflected menace of your beefy jailers.

OVERALL PLAYABILITY

This is playground war and, like war, can go on much longer than it should. The more tactical the play, the more exciting it is for everyone. With two evenly-matched teams going head-to-head, Relievo can go on for hours.

CHARGE!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

No point in playing this game without A LOT of kids. And you’ll need a large area for teams to charge at each other.

THE BIG IDEA

This game is similar to Relievo, with the emphasis very much on the opening act. A few kids stomp around the estate or school playground, rallying the troops with the cry, ‘Line up for Charge! Line up for Charge!’ Others join them in the shouting and stomping (this is one of the most fun parts of Charge!). Once a critical mass is achieved, the assembled crowd divides up into two teams. Back in the day, the teams were boys against girls. The key is to divide quickly and not lose the momentum. Decide on a jail and then line up at either end of a field, open area or playground. After a short-lived face-off and some trash talk, the teams run full pelt at one another. Catch opposing team members and put them in your marked-out jail, or rescue your team mates from a similar fate. To be honest: after all the stomping, shouting and trash-talking, the game usually runs out of steam fairly quickly after the initial charge.

BEST STRATEGY

There are political lessons to be learned here: get some of the most popular kids on board early on or your attempts to whip up a game will fall on deaf ears.

PHYSICAL RISK – 5/10

With most of the fun of this game concentrated at the beginning, before there’s any possibility of physical contact, this is a safe enough bet. The longer the game goes on, the higher the physical risk.

SURVIVAL TIPS

If the game actually gets to the charge, those leading it usually fare the worst. So unless you’re pretty zippy on your feet, or one of the more rugged on the playground, hang back and try and survive the first wave of attacks.

OVERALL PLAYABILITY

Charge! tends to be a fairly short-lived game, unless it morphs into a more strategic game of Relievo. All good, rabble-rousing fun, though.

ROUNDERS

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Players to make up two teams of at least five each, a bat (baseball/cricket bat, hurley or tennis racquet) and ball (tennis ball or sliotar), a large playing area, and cones or jackets for each of the four bases.

THE BIG IDEA

A cross between baseball and cricket, the bat-and-ball game of Rounders was most likely the forerunner of baseball. Our cash-strapped 1980s version used a wooden tennis racquet and ball, and jumpers or jackets marking out a diamond of first, second and third bases and home. Teams take turns batting and fielding. The fielders designate a pitcher to throw the ball to the batter, who has three attempts to hit it (or they’re out) and then drop the ‘bat’ and run like a demon to first base (or further if they can manage it). Then it’s the next batter’s turn, and when they run to first base, the player who went before them runs on to second base, and so on. Once a batter makes it to a base, they’re safe, but if they or the base they’re running to is hit by the ball, or a fielder catches the ball they’ve hit, they’re out. Our version had the whole batting team out if a fielder catches with one hand, or when the batting team has three players out.

SCORING

We scored a point for each player that makes it all the way around the bases, and two points for a ‘rounder’, where a batter runs all the way around the diamond in the one go.

DID YOU KNOW?

When we were growing up, I think most of us were blissfully unaware that Rounders is one of the four official sports of the GAA (along with football, hurling and handball). You can find out more about the official version on their website, www.gaarounders.ie.

BEST STRATEGY

    When fielding, it’s important to have reliable catchers posted at each of the bases.

    When batting, decide on an order that makes sense. There’s no point in having your fastest runner stuck behind one of your slowest (as they can’t pass them out).

PHYSICAL RISK – 3/10