Polish Skittles

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Translation details

Model: mistral-large-2512.

Translated text

A game widespread in Polish manors in Livonia, also known here and there in Lesser Poland. Suitable for secondary schools. Old Polish authors mention skittles (e.g., Rej in Wizerunek), while school regulations (e.g., the Chełmno Academy) recommend it alongside ball games during leisure time from study. The game described here, in terms of the richness of its combinations, deserves a place among the best alongside Palant, Pliń, and Nożna; it lags behind them only in the quantity and variety of movement and is therefore best suited for hot days. German skittles cannot compare with it in any respect. The pitch must be level, approximately 60 in length and 25 meters in width. Otherwise, depending on the skill of the players, the length of the pitch may be increased. The pitch is divided into three fields by two transverse lines, enclosing between them a “no-man’s land” 10 meters wide. The lines serve as the front boundary for each camp. Each camp has 12 skittles, shaped like a truncated cone 30 cm high, with a base diameter of 6 cm and a top diameter of 1 cm; the skittles of one side are marked with a colored band or a shallow groove (a “neck”). The game uses 8 wooden balls with a diameter of 18 cm. In competitions, each camp consists of 8 participants; in practice games, the number is arbitrary, as the measure of equality between camps is the number of balls, each of which is thrown only once per turn. Each camp sets up its skittles on its own field as it wishes, ensuring only that: 1) at least one, but no more than 6 skittles stand on the boundary line, 2) the entire arrangement is nowhere wider than 3 meters or deeper than 6,60 meters, and 3) the distance between skittles does not exceed 60 cm (twice the height of a skittle). Depending on the skill and throwing style of the opponents, different setups may be advisable. In each camp, the order of players is strictly marked to prevent one player from gaining an advantage in more difficult positions. One side begins and throws all the balls in turn (one player after another, one ball each), trying to knock down as many of the opponent’s skittles as possible. Throws can be made from behind one’s own skittles or from the side, from one’s own boundary line. For the continuation of the game, the position of the closest skittle to the boundary line determines the throwing point; thus, knocking down the opponent’s closest skittles moves their boundary line back. Next, the other side plays. Before throwing the balls, however, they throw the skittles that were knocked down from the distance where the given “corpse” fell, trying to knock down as many of the opponent’s skittles as possible (a flat, sweeping throw). Skittles hit in this way by other skittles are removed from the game along with those that struck them. If a skittle misses, however, it is placed where it stopped; it becomes the property of the opponent and is called a “Cossack.” In further play, “Cossacks” are no longer thrown back. Throwing back the “corpses” is called “driving” or “pairing” the skittles (because the hit and the hitter are removed from the game in pairs). If a thrown skittle does not reach the opponent’s boundary line, the next player from the opposing team kicks it with their heel toward their own boundary line as far as they deem advantageous; a strong kick protects the “Cossack” from being hit but, in the absence of other skittles—usually at the end of the game—also moves the boundary line back for ball throws. The same consideration requires moderating the force of the skittle throw: if successful, a strong throw will sweep away more skittles; if it misses, however, a strongly thrown skittle will fly so far that hitting it with a ball becomes difficult; moreover, at the end of the game, such a throw may move the opponent’s boundary line back. (It is also possible to agree to throw back “Cossacks,” but this excessively prolongs the game, as only skittles knocked down by skittles are removed.) After all the “corpses” have been thrown back, the side throws the balls, with the order of players counted separately for skittle throws, ball throws, and “kicking.” The game ends when one field is empty and the opposing side has no more corpses to throw back. Toward the end of the game, one must try to throw the balls as strongly as possible to finish the game with as few throws as possible, which affects the calculation of the degree of victory. Balls are not thrown onto an empty field, but a “corpse” is thrown back even onto empty fields: it can be knocked down by another corpse in turn, saving balls. However, from an empty field, balls are still thrown at the opponent’s standing skittles from the end of the pitch, if balls remain. The victory is calculated by counting: one point for a “Cossack” standing on the winning side’s field, two points for one’s own skittle still standing, and one point for a ball not yet thrown. If both fields are empty (e.g., the last skittles were knocked down by “Cossacks” and removed from the game without being thrown back), the side that is to throw wins by as many points as they still have balls. Thus, if the last skittle (a “Cossack”) was knocked down by the very first ball, the victory is 7; if only by the eighth, it is 0, and the game is a draw. If the winning side still has skittles and the opponent knocks down their last skittle with the very first ball, then the opponent’s last throw has only one ball at their disposal; if they also knock down the last skittle of the winning side with it, that victory counts as 8: the winning side, with an empty field, is to throw but has nothing to throw at, yet still has all 8 balls. If one side (the whites) still has one skittle and knocks down the opponent’s last non-“Cossack” skittle not with the last ball, but the thrown-back skittle clears their field in return, then the side with more balls wins, by as many points as they have more; if the whites threw the last ball, the side that is to throw (the reds) wins.

Scope of transcription: text belonging to the illustration omitted; exact boundaries recorded in the extraction report.

Attribution in the preface: the description of the game “Polish Skittles” is attributed to Kazimierz Lutosławski.

Source scan: Kujawsko-Pomorska Digital Library, marked ‘Public Domain’. View PDF — page 177.

Metadata

Type: game
Traits: Not stated in the source
Source: Eugeniusz Piasecki, Zabawy i gry ruchowe dzieci i młodzieży (1922)
Printed pages: 172–177 / PDF 177–182
Digital edition: Digital edition · Source record
Open the edition at the relevant page: p. 172
Read the source text: zgr-103