Howway...

[venta]

A quick survey about junior school games, for those who can remember that far back.

Yesterday, with half an eye on the rugby, I commented that parts of it were pretty much indistinguishable from an extended game of Pile On.

The basic principle of which is, you push someone over, shout "Pile On!" and then pile as many people on them as possible. onebyone fixed me with his special "you're a weird Northerner" gaze, and told me that the game was, and always has been, called Bundle.

Any offers? I suspect I may be relying on jiggery_pokery to back me up here.

My mum agrees that it was definitely Pile On in her day, my dad appears to have gone to too refined a school to do such things. They did comment, however, on there being a big regional variation on what you say when you're playing some game like Tiggy[*] and for some reason, such as injury, require not to be tiggable for a while.

Round our way saying "kings" (and crossing your fingers) rendered you untouchable... for a while. Anyone suspected of overusing it probably got Piled On. I'm sure someone's probably done proper etymological research into all this, but how could it possibly be better than the answers of a self-selecting LJ readership?

[*] or Tag, if you're a southern jessy.

Oh, and my Designated Hero for the Week (DHW) this week is also onebyone. Though I'm ashamed to admit I've completely forgotten why. I quite like the idea of a DHW, I shall try and keep it up.

Comments

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the rules for British Bulldog at all, which I've always been sad about, but I remember Red Rover very clearly. You form two long lines, holding hands, then team A chant 'Red Rover, Red Rover, let (insert name on team B) come over'. The person picked has to charge at full pelt at team A's line, specifically at which ever link she thinks is weakest, because her objective is to break through it. If she can't break through it, then she has to join team A. The game is won when all but one person is on one line.

Incidentally, did you have Kitpost? Probably a corruption of Kickpost, I think, I guess people used to kick the post to be safe. It was like It, but much cooler because it involved sneaking around in the woods trying to creep up on the Kitpost. One person (who is 'it') has to guard the kitpost, while the others try to reach it in order to be safe for the next round. The person guarding catches people by spotting them and calling out their name and where they are, but she has to be touching the kitpost in order to do so. They're then out for the round and go and hold onto the post. And the next person caught hangs on to them, etc, so that as time goes on others have a better chance of reaching the post because they can touch the end of the chain instead of the post. And whoever is spotted first is it next time. I loved that game.

Polio rings a bell, but I can't think why.

Then there was Mother May I, which just sucked.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Bulldog:

To be played on a rectangular thing, eg a playground.

Everyone stands at one end, except the person who is on, who stands in the middle.
Person in middle shouts "Bulldog", at which point everyone runs to the other end of the playground.
Person in middle tries to catch as many people as possible on the way past.
Anyone caught then joins the person in the middle as catchers for the next go.

Winner is the person caught last... of course, it becomes increasingly difficult to run from one end to the other as the number of catchers begins to outnumber the catchees.

The distinction we drew was:
Bulldog - you tig someone to catch them
British Bulldog - you pick someone up to catch them (we were banned from playing this at school)

I remember the chant from Red Rover, now I know how it works, too :)

Polio:

To be played (for preference) between two close-together walls, but these aren't necessary.

All players form a line against one wall, except the person who is on who stands by the other wall. We'll call the person who is on A for convenience :)

A chooses a category (colours, breeds of dog, countries), and tells the line. Each person in the line chooses a thing from that category, the person on the end of the line relays all the choices A. A then calls one out, and the person who chose that races across to the other wall and back. A also races (in the opposite direction) to the wall and back. The first person back shouts "Polio".

If A wins, they join the line and the loser becomes the person on. If A loses, they must shout out another choice (or the same one again) and race again....

Mother May I?

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I think we did have Polio. Mother May I is vaguely similar, but so much more boring. 'Mother' stands at one wall, back to the others. The others line up against the other wall. Mother calls out criteria and actions, eg 'anyone wearing red take two steps forwards'. The person who reaches her wall first wins, the furthest back is Mother for the next round. That's the basics though at some point people called out 'Mother may I', and I forget the details. As I said, it was very dull.

British Bulldog got banned at our school as well: we used to play it on the hard tennis court, so not only did it really hurt when you fell, but there was a good long run up and so contact was made at great speed. It was very violent. I loved it. As I recall you had to do more than touch someone, you had to actually grab them and stop them running on, in practice jumping on them and pinning them to the ground!

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

you had to actually grab them and stop them running on

This is kind of what venta is suggesting as the the difference between Britsh Bulldog and any other kind of Bulldog. It sounds very dull to play it just with tagging. The way we played in Scouts you did have to lift people fully off the ground to count as catching them (so the first person in had to be someone largish). There was a rule that if two or more people co-operated to lift someone, then the one at the head end had to make sure he let go last.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

That's the kind of safety conscious rule that you only find in the scouts!

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, it was a "rule of scouts" rather than a "rule of the game". If you were dropped on your head it was still a valid catch, it's just that the people who dropped you were in trouble.