Cricket games pre PC Video console era

[Benauds appreci]

Anoyne play cricket games before the IT generations of games came along?

Did anyone try to play Subbuteo cricket and think that it wasn't as good as the football version...but possibly better than the rugby game with its scrum machine where you would try to feed the ball into your side of the scrum!!

My kids introduced me to a simple game called "Howzat" over here. It was basically two metallic die...you rolled the first dice which had varying runs on the sides and one side read "out"...when this was rolled you rolled the other dice which had the I think the 5 more common ways of being out and one side was a "no-ball"...roll that and you batted on.

Apart from playing versions of cricket on the dartboard or snooker table...anyone else play any pre PC/Video console cricket games.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

I'm interested to know how you play cricket on a dart board and snooker/pool table! Please do tell

 

[Benauds appreci]

The rules for snooker/cricket probably vary wherever you are locally..but basically you would set up the table as ten reds in a triangle behind the pink spot and all of the colours on their spots with their usual points value, (in my neck of the woods the blue ball becomes a "single run" if potted. and black ball removed from table). The "bowler" breaks the reds..if a red ball is potted then that is the first wicket "down". If 2 or more reds are potted then its still only one wicket..the other reds are returned to the table behind the pink spot.

The "batsman" then has a previously chosen number of shots at the colours...usually between 6 and 10 shots where every colour potted scores the number of corresponding runs..eg blue=1..pink=6..yellow =2 etc. Even if he fails to pot a colour..he continues until his shots are complete. The "bowler then tries to pot another red and therefore take another wicket.

This goes on untill all the reds ["wickets"] are potted...the batting team being "all out". Then the players change roles for batting/bowling.

Not very exciting or sophisticated I know...but it made a welcome change to playing usual snooker....at least I had a slightly better chance of winning the cricket version as your break was not automatically over if you missed a colour.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Haha that sounds pretty fun. So when your 'batting' do you start playing shots immediatly after the bowler and broken the reds?

 

[Benauds appreci]

Yes indeed..say the rules were 6 "batting" shots, Your shots may go something like pink/pink/miss/miss/yellow/brown...thats 18 runs.

Then the opponent would try to take a wicket (pot a red)..tactics do come into play..for instance when batting your last shot you could go either for the runs OR try to place the white in a difficult position for the bowler to hit another red OR, as some good billiard players can do, score runs off your last batting shot AND snooker the bowler on his red(s).

 

[.::Stevo::.]

So what happens when you accidentaly hit a red ball in when batting, or the opposite, hitting a coloured ball when bowling

 

[sohum]

Book cricket is one that springs to mind. I also invented a couple of cricket games using a pack of cards. It made many summers during my middle and high school years bearable.

 

[Benauds appreci]

Book cricket? How do you play that sohummisra?

 

[sohum]

Book cricket? How do you play that sohummisra?

Book cricket was quite a strange game. We basically took a largish book. The way the game worked was you opened a random page in the book and looked at the even side. If it was a 2,4,6,8 you added those amounts of runs to your total and if it was a 0 you lost a wicket. Pretty simple game and required a great deal of imagination to be close to exciting!

 

[Benauds appreci]

Thats a new one to me. Imaginitive use for a book though.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Book cricket was quite a strange game. We basically took a largish book. The way the game worked was you opened a random page in the book and looked at the even side. If it was a 2,4,6,8 you added those amounts of runs to your total and if it was a 0 you lost a wicket. Pretty simple game and required a great deal of imagination to be close to exciting!

LOL, did you invent that game?? You must of been EXTREMELY bored

 

[nightprowler10]

Book cricket was quite a strange game. We basically took a largish book. The way the game worked was you opened a random page in the book and looked at the even side. If it was a 2,4,6,8 you added those amounts of runs to your total and if it was a 0 you lost a wicket. Pretty simple game and required a great deal of imagination to be close to exciting!

Hahaha! Brings back some good old memories. The most work out most of my text books ever got. Only difference with the way we played it was that 8 would be a dot ball.

 

[sohum]

LOL, did you invent that game?? You must of been EXTREMELY bored

Nah--I invented card cricket. Now that was a game and a half.

Hahaha! Brings back some good old memories. The most work out most of my text books ever got. Only difference with the way we played it was that 8 would be a dot ball.

I'm sure that's how I played it, too. It's been a while and besides I didn't really play it that much.

There was another game my cousins and uncles had come up with during the 1999 world cup that actually used a Snakes and Ladders board to build a cricket game. Not sure I remember how that one works but it was pretty exciting at the time!

 

[Kev]

I used to play the odd game of Tit Cricket and a fair bit of the darts game. You can still get Howzat and I've seen a few cricket card games in the shops. I've never played it but surely there are cricket Top Trumps?

 

[Benauds appreci]

I used to play the odd game of Tit Cricket and a fair bit of the darts game. You can still get Howzat and I've seen a few cricket card games in the shops. I've never played it but surely there are cricket Top Trumps?

Tit Cricket!! Whats that all about Kev?