Fair Games
What games are suitable for Villages Fetes, School Fairs and the like?
We have quite a few good ideas for traditional games that are ideal for school fetes and summer fairs.
Coconut Shy
Obviously
there's the coconut
shy - seen at all fairgrounds everywhere! We sell coconut shy balls
but you'll need to rig up a backdrop and also provide the poles and the
cups to hold the coconuts in. For poles, one suggestion is to use lengths
of standard 3/4 inch gas pipe. If it will be children throwing, you might
want to just balance the coconuts straight on top of the pole without
a cup to make it easy for them.
Aunt Sally
Along
similar lines, the Oxfordshire pub game Aunt
Sally, is another good idea for a fair. We sell the doll, swivel iron,
sticks and a special Aunt Sally backdrop. The backdrop is quite expensive
and requires a frame to be made so is more for serious Aunt Sally players.
However, if you can hang up an old carpet or sheet of some kind, then
the only other piece of equipment needed is a pole and again, a length
of 3/4 inch gas pipes is ideal for this purpose...
Knur and Spell
Less
well known but equally suitable for a village fete or other public event
like this is the sport of Knur
and Spell. In this game, a ball is balanced on a little see-saw called
a Spell or Trap and this is used to shoot the ball up into the air whereupon
it is bashed as hard as possible down the field.
It's just a case of who can hit it the furthest so for a school fete, you might want to have a competition for each age-group and present the winner with a prize at the end of the day.
We sell the necessary Bat, Trap
and Ball and all you need is a large open area and someone to fetch
the balls!
Skittles
There
is nothing quite like the sight of a Skittles alley or Skittles table
to generate a bit of enthusiasm amongst adults and youngsters at any event
- everyone wants to have a go. James Masters, the owner of Masters Traditional
Games, regularly takes his Northamptonshire
Skittles table along to the summer fair at his local school and it's
the most popular stall by far. A Skittles Table is ideal for a fair, indoors
or outdoors, because you don't need to construct anything to catch the
pins, balls or cheeses and it's less effort to reset the pins each time.
That said, a Skittles Table is very expensive so normal alley
skittles are a more common and practical option for most fairs. 
Bear
in mind that the pin diamond will need to have a backdrop of straw bales
or some other wall to catch the pins and balls/cheeses and you will also
need a "sticker" - a volunteer to reset the pins after each
turn...
Finally, the game can be played on grass as long as there aren't too
many bumps but the flatter the surface, the better the result will be.
You might wish to consider playing Long
Alley skittles where instead of rolling balls, the balls or cheeses
are hurled the length of the alley directly onto the pins. That way, you
won't need to worry about the alley surface at all.
Quoits
The final idea that is provenly successful at a fair is the game of Quoits.
Real
steel quoits is the most traditional option but they are really heavy
and only suitable for adults. (Proper Steel Quoits are played using clay
pits but "Sward Quoits" is just the same game with the target
stake stuck into a a lawn or other grassy area). They make a great spectacle
and a crowd of spectators will soon gather so safety must be the first
priority. The game is usually played with 2 ends and 2 players but it's
easy to convert this to a single stake and some kind of competition for
the person who get the best score.
Where
there will be children or where steel quoits are otherwise inappropriate,
an excellent alternative is Evesham
Quoits, a miniaturised version of the outdoor game that is a traditional
pub game around Wales and West England. Although it is designed as an
indoor game, it works perfectly well out of doors and the scoring system
lends itself very well a "top score wins a prize" type competition
at a fair.
Do Let us know if you think there's something missing from this list.
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