Car cricket

Car cricket

Car cricket, also known as pub cricket, is a car game which is played in the United Kingdom and other countries with a sufficient number of suitably named pubs. The game's popularity has declined as roads in the UK have steadily been upgraded. Longer car journeys increasingly use motorways and major roads with town bypasses, hardly ever passing a public house. Younger players may not be aware of this problem and with luck can still be kept quiet, avidly looking out for a pub on a motorway.

Rules

There are several variations of the rules. A basic version is described in the "AA Book of the Road" (circa 1970). Taking it in turns during a journey, one player "bats". This means he looks for pubs which the car passes. When one is found he gets a "run" (point) for each leg in the title of the pub. Thus "The Jolly Sailor" gets 2 points whilst "The White Horse" gets 4. If a pub has no legs, it scores no points. A player is "out" if the pub name includes the word "arms" or "head" (e.g. "The King's Head", "The Baker's Arms"), and it is the next player's turn. The game ends at the end of the journey. The player with the highest score wins.

Variations

There are many variations that can be invented, to make scoring faster or fairer and to make players be out more or less often.

Scoring: (1) Limit the maximum score to six, as in true cricket. (2) Inanimate objects score one point each (e.g. "The Oak Tree" (one point), "The Rose and Crown" (two points)). (3) A pub with the word "arms" in the name scores two points.

Out: (0) The batsman is out if the pub name contains "arms" or "head". (1) The batsman is out if the sign has no legs. (2) The batsman is out if the name of the pub references royalty (e.g. "The Queen's Head", "King Henry IV").

Simultaneous car cricket: Two players sitting on either side of the car play simultaneously scoring runs for the pubs passed on their side of the road.

Disputes

Disputes can occur with many pub signs. For example, is "Hogshead" "out" (the head of a hog) or "no points" (the type of barrel known as a hogshead)?; is "King Henry's Rest" "two points" because of the King or "no points" because the "Rest" is an inanimate object?; how many horses are there in "Coach and Horses"?; does the slug in "The Slug and Lettuce" have one leg or no legs? These disputes can be resolved by mutual agreement as they arise but players may prefer to agree house rules in advance. There are three ways to handle signs with plural nouns such as "The Coach and Horses": (1) agree that any ill-defined plural noun counts as two of that object (so two horses, for eight points); (2) count the horses on the picture outside the pub (e.g. four horses get 16 points); or (3) agree in advance that ill defined groups such as "The Coach and Horses" or "The Cavaliers" count a certain number of runs (e.g. six or ten).

High scoring pubs

The highest-scoring pub known in Britain is "The Million Hare", in Plumstead, scoring 4 million points (or a frustrating six points under scoring variation (1)).

"The Twenty Church Wardens", in Cockley Clay, Norfolk, scores 40 points.

Of commonly occurring pub signs, amongst the best are "The Seven Swans" (14 points) and "Fox and Hounds" (12 points).

"The Cricketers" scores four points (the number of cricketers is unspecified, so assume two) but "The Cricket Team", if it existed, would score twenty two (there are eleven cricketers on a cricket team).

"The Eleven Cricketers" at Storrington in Sussex (alas now shut down) was the closest example of this and scored 22 runs since the number of cricketers was specified - often a match winner, this pub is sorely missed.

The "Duke of York's Men" can be argued to fetch 20,000 points, by reference to the nursery rhyme, but can also be argued to score only four points as the name does not specify how many men.

Similarly "The Beehive" could be argued to equal 6000 points as there would be at least a thousand bees in a beehive conversely it could be argued to gain twelve points as the number of bees aren't specified. it could also be argued that the beehive is the hive itself and therefore scores no points Although it has yet to be seen, some players fear the day they pass a pub named the "Legless Millipede", scoring zero points.

Example game

Alice and Bob play the game using the basic version and handling plurals using method (1). Alice is "in".
"The Fox" - 4 points (4)
"Henry IV" - 2 points (6)
"The Oak Tree" - 0 points (6)
"Coach and Horses" - 8 points, because we assume two horses (14)
"King's Head" - Alice is out with 14 points, Bob is in
"The Crown and Anchor" - 0 points (0)
"The Red Lion" - 4 points (4)
"The Three Horseshoes" - 0 points (4)
"The Carpenter's Arms" - Bob is out with 4 points, Alice is back in
"The Pig and Rooster" - 6 points (20)
"The Baker's Arms" - Alice is out with 20 points, Bob is back in
"The Zebra" - 4 points (8)
"The Fox and Hounds" - 12 points, because we assume one fox and two hounds (20)
"The Silver Star" - 0 points (20)
"The Wrestlers" - 4 points, because we assume two wrestlers (24)
"The County Arms" - Bob is out with 4 points, Alice is back in
"Sir Isaac Newton" - 2 points (22)
The journey ends. Bob wins with 24 points to Alice's 22.

References

* "AA Book of the Road", editions circa 1970


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