Listening to Paul McCartney's recent song Queenie Eye got me thinking about the games we played as kids. So my question to the good people of wiki-land is this:

What street games or school yard games do you remember playing as a kid? Did you have a favourite game? And can you still remember the rules of how it was played?

In other words: do you know your Queenie Eye from your elbow? (...no, this isn't a pop quiz!)

And Mr Wolf, if you're out there, for the hundredth time of asking, please tell me "what time is it REALLY?!!" And don't bite my head off for asking!

Kick the can 123, alleyo

Is that the same "alleyo" the Good Ship used to sail on, I wonder...?!

Remember British Bulldog? Anyone else still got the scars?!

Catch a girl kiss a girl, and no, dont remember any rules !!

Whats British bulldog? Queenie Eye? I see Ive had a deprived childhood !!!!!

Nope it was a game were you kicked the "can or ball" as hard as you can ,then run and hide, before the ball was retrieved so he could attempt to find you, I think?

British Bulldog was a game born of hell, but which masqueraded as fun...

There are different versions of the rules but usually you played it in a yard. The kids would all stand at one end of the yard in an imaginary safe zone and one person (the Bulldog) would stand facing them in the middle. Upon a signal, the "mob" would charge in unison to try and get to the other side of the yard, without being caught by the Bulldog. Once caught, you had to help the Bulldog catch the mob members next time they charged back again. This was repeated and the last man standing was deemed to be the winner. This winner usually then became the first Bulldog in the next game, provided his ribs weren't too broken...

Can't imagine why but many schools banned it.

So I guess that the better you were at kicking the can, the more time you had to hide.

I was only joking about the "alleyo" by the way.
As I remember it, The Good Ship Sailed On The Alleyo was part of a skipping song.

Two balls and elastics wrapped around your feet with someone eels then someone in the middle trying to get out

Sounds a bit like marriage, only with chains instead of elastic!!!

Ha Ha! That game just reminded me of hours playing cats cradle -making patterns with string or wool wrapped round your fingers. Ah and that game where you fold a sheet of paper into basically quarters , with inner and outer sections that you manipulated in and out to rhymes , and read messages on the exposed leaf you stopped at. Cant think of the name. Anyone?

Hide and seek,
Ball tick,
Whip and top,keep going the longest
Can i cross the river..
Rounders,
Various skipping games ,
Hula hoop,keep going the longest
Are some that i remember...

I was the Kerby king back in the day..lol

My God you must be old, missy! Even I had forgotten that one...

Sly Fox, anyone? (Not to be confused with "What's the time, Mr Wolf"?). And, yes, there was a new wave band called Sly Fox but THIS ISN'T A POP QUIZ!!!!!

Kerbsie, I think we called it. Was that the game throwing a football at the kerb and scoring points by making it bounce back? My dad used to send me to play Kerbsie on the duel carriage way. Think he might have been trying to tell me something...

Yin Yang your dad was right ,you were probably a 'cheeky' lad then ....lol

Hopscotch. Surprised you haven't mentioned that one Yang.

Numbers 1 - 10 in squares. Throw a stone into each square starting at one. Pick stone up as you pass the number it is in on the way back from reaching 10 . Hop and jump accordingly to available stone-less squares.

Stupid name and even more stupid confusing instructions here, but it was a good game.

Queenie Eye is great. Makes one feel happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CfLUmVso30

Looks like the one in black is having a fit. Who is she, can't think? Looks a bit like Kate Bush.

I haven't got it, gran. And it definitely isn't in my pocket...

Used to play one where all the kids would line up and the 'leader' would shout out a letter. If that letter was in your name, you could move forward by however many spaces. First to the post won.Sounds very dull, in hindsight.

Jumping off the shed onto a mattress.... hmmmm..a broken tooth stopped that fad.

That game can also be 'played' with colours as well.....
Might sound dull rudebox but 'thats' all we had then....Kids don't play like that now !!!!all electronic stuff ,,,

The first to the post game reminds me a bit of 'Statues'. Wasn't that the game were you had to slowly creep up behind the person in charge but "freeze" whenever the leader looked around? If you got caught moving, even a little bit, you were out.

(I could be getting it confused with Sly Fox though).

No ,you quite right , forgot about that one ..
Knock around ginger was another game <that i did not pay >that drove me MAD ......

Was Knock around Ginger a kid's game, missy? I do hope Ginger wasn't a cat?!

(...or some poor defenceless, redhead in your class, come to think of it!)

What's the Time Mr. Wolf? (not you Yang, it's a game)

Just remembered my 2 older girls,used to play 'clapping' games and 'singing ' games as well...

...I know, gran. Just can't remember what half the games were about!

Didn't he shout "It's dinner time!!!!" or something, and then chase everyone half 'round the block?!

What about the good old Top and Whip ?

The whips were made of leather and if you got in the way, too bad, but can't remember that happening.

No problem with health and safety then.

Yes, kids shouted, what's the time Mr Wolf. Mr. WOlf replied with it's one o'clock , then they repeated 'what's the time Mr Wolf'. Reply two o'clock etc. until he unexpectedly shouted dinner time, and chased after the kids with intentions to catch one. The one he caught was the next Mr. Wolf.
Kids screaming and running all over the show.

No wonder we all grew up so disturbed...!

Granny i mentioned whip and top earlier, i remember the 'colouring' in of the top with 'wax' crayons, very pretty ...
Some girls i went to school with were mad on horses and used to put a skipping rope around the waist of 'the horse' and the other was the 'rider' ..never got it my-self..

...possibly inspired by seeing White Horses on telly, or watching too much Follyfoot!

Yes your right...

Sorry MissM, didn't see top and whip. Yes, we would colour the top of the top . We used coloured chalks. Made nice patterns as they whizzed around.

Over the Moon and Under the Stars was a skipping game we played, but all I can remember is we had to run under it when it was up and jump over it at it's lowest spot, without tripping up. That is probably all it was.

Grazed knees sometimes.

I remember children running around playing horses as you said. Oh, to be young and innocent again.
Didn't have tellies then Yang. You should have remembered that from another thread !

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/633001/1.html (best thread ever)

Granny ,your right it was 'chalk ' to colour the tops ,easy to change ' designs' lol
Higher and higher was another skipping game ,were you got 'grazed knees'....And 'off ground' tick..

Hop Scotch was a total mystery to most boys... what the heck was all that about????? And as for tying a tennis ball inside an old pair of tights and bouncing it off a wall, don't get me started....

postman's knock

As i recall boys did not play 'hop sscotch' to pissed to explain'''Idont no what the 'ball in the 'tights was all about , being an only child < violens please > i remember 'playing ' tennis against the wall ,,,,lol

Hang on Yang, tennis balls in tights? We didn't have tights until 1965 approx. By that time we were playing rather different games behind the bike sheds. (before anyone mentions 'abuse', well it wasn't, because most I'm sure, had a grope or two)

Yes pet, we can see and understand what you mean

I think missy and me are far too young to be reading this kind of thing gran. I wasn't even a twinkle in 1965 and the only bottles missy drank back then had free school milk in, not Merlot...

You may have been behind the 'bike 'shed. i was only 12 to young for groping and tights...You saucy madam...
Over and out till 2m ....

We used to tie elastic bands together to make a chain.Two people (or chairlegs- if I was grounded) would step into them, forming a 'traintrack' with the one in the middle performing funky moves?? Was that 'french skipping'?

Once I got to about 9 or 10, we used to play Famous Five, which basically meant following people around, making notes on their description and what they were doing, without being spotted.

New Word

pseudologia fantastica

Was it training for a career in the DHSS?

Think it was French skipping Rude. Never played that at our school. Couldn't afford the rubber bands.

Night MissM

Yang, sorry but I may have got the wrong thread in the last post.

Off now. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thanks Granny, I thought it was called French Skipping

That made me chuckle!!! My aspiration was actually Georgie (character in the Famous Five books)

It was "the Big Ship sails on the alley alley o" ...wasn't it?!!!

...I've got that bloody 'Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' song going around in my head now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVR-PyRC4io

[youtube]6KJGJRd8pGE[/youtube]my grandad used to sing this me and my brother we loved it.And this one ive just put on.

Simon says

We played a chase game called CHAIN ....you would have two sides, one doing the catching ,one the avoiding (often boys v girls)....you would catch an opponent by grabbing them and saying L.O.N.D.O.N. and those caught would have to form a chain in the yard.Those caught could be released by one of their team avoiding the captors and ticking the chain. Often wondered if that was a game that only existed in our school ?

Scariest game we ever had was 'bog brush chase'...one particular lad in our class (no names, but the smelly kid !) would dip the bog brush in the toilet (horrible victorian outside loos which you avoided if you could) and chase after you trying to splash you.
I still remember the feeling of panic and the need to get away that this caused some 40 years later.

I lived by some swings off Grange Road where we played football and cricket and sometimes get on a swing and get as high as you can and launch yourself off it to se who landed the furthest.
Marbles (allies?)played in the gutter, 3 card brag and Jacks

Jacks

We boys used to play alleys (marbles) usually on the pavement or in the gutter. The alleys were made of glass with little whirls of colour in the middle. They were quite cheap to buy and you could get a whole bag for a shilling or so.

Some kids (usually those whose dads worked at Cammell Lairds) used to turn up with bollies - ball bearings, which would smash an alley to smithereens. It was like bringing a gun to a snowball fight.

There was also another pavement game called jacks and five stones, which I could never figure out. You had five little stones in your hand and had to flip them about in some way.

All street games seemed to be ruled by undefinable seasons. One day everyone would be playing one game, then next day - for no obvious reason - we all switched to something else.

We used to play a kind of "conkers" with old bricks on the bomb sites. If you got a brick with some mortar still on it it would prove more resilient but less effective in breaking your opponents brick.Who needs computer games eh?

Think we called them 'steelies'. They were certainly very heavy and wrecked many a trouser pocket in carrying them. Invariably the bigger lads used to have these and used them to either win or destroy the marbles of other kids. Talk about "balls of steel"....

Many games would be considered pretty dangerous nowadays. Most lads seemed to have pen knives back then. Newsagents and toy shops used to sell them (usually with pictures of football teams on them). One game we played was Split the Kipper. It was a bit like Twister but with knives...

This is all starting to sound a bit like Tom Brown's School Days...lol!

Anyway, as disgusting as it was, I don't think kids really understood about germs and hygiene in those days. Boys in particular were always poking sticks around in drains (that, and trying to pee down them!).

Peashooters and catapults. We, the girls, had peashooters along with a bag of dried peas provided by mother. Mothers now, would be put away for neglect or aiding and abetting!
Only the boys had the catapults. Little horrors !

I remember Jacks Derek, but probably secondary school by then.

Another street game I've just remembered was a variation on the paper-chase:

...basically one of a group of kids would set off down the road with a piece of chalk (or suitable stone), in their hand. This person, the 'hare' (for want of a better name), would usually be given a minute or two's head start on the chasing pack and would attempt to leave a trail showing the direction he or she was running in around the back-streets of town. The idea was to mark an arrow at strategic points on lamp post, pavements, and wall corners (especially at turning points). The hare would then attempt to travel as far as possible before being chased down by the pursuing pack.

This generally worked well, just as long as it didn't start to rain, but the success of the game ultimately depended upon how fairly the hare left clues! The game could sometimes go on for an hour or more if the hare dodged up and down enough alleyways. The hare was usually then found hiding somewhere when they reached a dead-end, but occasionally made it all the way back home undetected.

Anyone else ever play this? Running around so much certainly helped keep us warm, and we were all a lot slimmer and fitter for doing it...

Yes Yang, remember something like that, drawing arrows on walls or door posts.
Don't remember the paper game, maybe that was a bit before my time !

DONKEY we would play at school and at home (in the road)against some poor pensioners, outside living room wall.

Found this on net, so copied and pasted.

For this game you need a wall with a flat area in front of it. You can use a large ball or a small ball.

1. Players stand behind each other in a line, about three or four metres from the wall.

2. The first person throws the ball against the wall, so it bounces on the ground in front of her.

3. As the ball bounces, she runs in and jumps over it with her legs apart, without letting the ball touch her.

4. If the ball touches her, she takes the first letter of the word DONKEY. The second time it happens she takes O, the third time is N, and she keeps going until she has spelled DONKEY. When this happens she's out of the game.

...perhaps so, granny. I know you're not as old as we all think! But if you've ever watched the film The Railway Children you will probably remember the scene with the boy who falls in the tunnel whilst running in a paper chase. He was following a sort of litter trail on a cross-country run.

Best man dead, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned pitch-n-toss!

You guys all seem to be too young for "conkers" back then late 50's early 60's we used to bash them now you eat them "Chestnuts" roasting on an open fire sounds better than conkers. Anyway I used to get the Crosville green bus to Thornton Hough and sneak into Lord Leverhulmes country estate and get the best conkers. I am not sure this was a street game but generally around Dingle Larch and Beech Rd's we use to have great fun stealing wood and anything else that would burn for "Bonny Night" we would also have pretty scary pitched battles in the streets to protect our wood and the wood we had stolen.

I wouldn't fancy eating horse chestnuts (the one's we use for conkers) ...the one's sold for eating are "sweet" chestnuts. I don't know for sure but think that horse chestnuts may actually be poisonous to humans. At the very least, they are probably very bitter.

Anyway, I'm more than old enough to remember playing conkers, and well remember the tricks employed in treating them to make them harder. These included soaking them in vinegar; and coating them in clear nail varnish; or filling them with glue!

As I recall territorial "battles" were not just over things like conker trees but more seriously kicked-off quite between rival schools.

Found this link to a site all about old street games. Some lovely stuff on here, but much of it early 20th century. Mentions Hopscotch; Marbles; Conkers; Skipping; and Knocking Down Ginger. Well worth a look...

http://www.1900s.org.uk/1900s-streetgames.htm

hehehe! yes yingyang I used to soak my conkers in vinegar
just previewed my post. I cannot delete that

Bet people wondered what that smell was coming from your trouser pockets, mike...

hehehe!

Queenie Eye,Queenie Eye Explained by Sir Paul McCartney Himself at Abbey road Studios
[youtube]tSAc7JNx2PA[/youtube]