Buy Shove Ha'penny from Masters Traditional Game shop

Hand-made Oak Shove Ha'penny Board

The famous English pub game in which players attempt to shove old English ha'penny coins up a board so that they fall between the horizontal lines. At first glance, it appears simple but you can bet your bottom farthing that the pub locals will beat you every time...

We believe that these boards are the best quality that are presently available anywhere. The Oak version of the board is made from from two or more planks of solid Oak timber beautifully finished and varnished to a allow the smooth running of coins. Hand-made in Britain by a traditional craftsman.

Each board comes complete with a set of 5 un-smoothed ha'pennies and rules. Although not shown in the picture, the board does have a wooden retaining bar fixed to its underside that wedges against the table to prevent the board from moving about when in play.

Approximate dimensions: 55 x 31.5 x 3.2cm

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Hand-made Oak Shove Ha'Penny Board

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The Origins of Sjoelbak, Shuffleboard and Shove Ha'penny

The original English ancestor of most of the games involving shoving discs of some sort on a table was called Shovelboard. Popular in Tudor times, Shovelboard was played by the English upper classes on enormous narrow tables as long as 30 feet (9 metres). Players shoved metal weights down the tables, attempting to get them as near to the other end of the table without falling off.

By the 1800's Shovelboard had been abandoned by the aristocracy and nowadays, Shovelboard tables are confined to museums in England but three major derivatives still survive. In Holland, the game of Sjoelbak came about sometime prior to 1900 and is still big in Holland, Belgium and Germany. In America, Shuffleboard, became quite popular during the early 1900's in an outdoor format which still survives. A smaller table version is now reasonably common in American bars and is very similar to the original Shovelboard.

In England, at a much earlier date during the 15th century, an indoor version of Shovelboard for play in taverns developed called Shove Groat. The game evolved through Slide-thrift and Push-penny and eventually Shove Ha'penny came into existence around 1840. It would originally have been played on any flat surface that could have the requisite lines inscribed on it but the official board these days should be made of slate or hardwood with indented lines defining the beds. In all such games, players take turns to push coins up a board with horizontal lines across it. The areas between each pair of horizontal lines are called a "beds" and the objective is to push the coins so that they land squarely in the beds without touching the horizontal lines. To win, a player needs to get a coin in each bed 3 times which is no easy task for the beds furthest away from the front of the board.

Shove Ha'penny

Hand-made Oak Shove Ha'penny Board

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The Origins of Sjoelbak, Shuffleboard and Shove Ha'penny