We played "chicken" which generally involved anything sharp and widening your stance each time. Knives or darts in general or on one memorable occasion - an ai

We played "chicken" which generally involved anything sharp and widening your stance each time. Knives or darts in general or on one memorable occasion - an air rifle. "Chicken" was also the name given to a bloody stupid game reminiscent of frogger, except you only have one life. I gave that one a miss, which is probably why I am typing this! Mumblypeg seems to be more of a game of skill where the penalty isn't a dart in your shin (soz, brother) but the chance to pull out your teeth to general hilarity. Dental hygiene was pretty basic back then as was diet, so losing an incisor must have been a real possibility. I think that is why the name focuses on the peg and "mumbling" rather than the throwing bit. Given this is a very long time ago "mumbly" probably doesn't mean quite what we use it for today. I have a suspicion it might mean "gagging" or "choking" or it might simply indicate that the mumbly orifice (mouth) is involved. As with all these sorts of games - all possibilities were correct somewhere. No doubt some inventive placements of the peg were found - eg in a cow pat or a nettle patch. "Base" must surely be the origin of the bases in baseball. Basically baseball is bases with a twist (or two). “We will make a pit-hole and there cast our nuts.” - that's marbles nowadays. I clearly remember doing that at Button Lane Infant School, Manc. Lancs. in 1976 and at Paderborn First School (BFES). I can recall buying marbles in the Sudring supermarket in Paderborn and I can attest that German kids were well catered for marbles back then (far better than we had in the UK). There was and probably still is a complicated exchange rate for the various marble types. One of our neighbours in Paderborn was a tankie (QRIH) and his lads obtained a few bearings from a Chieftain tank - 50mm or so across. They had a massive exchange value! They could shatter a glass marble if deployed correctly ...