Shove half penny

Shove halfpenny is a tavern pastime in the shuffleboard extended family, performed mainly in the United Kingdom. Two players or teams contend versus one another using coins or discs on a tabletop board.

Shove ha penny is presented on a small, rectangular, level board usually made of wood. A collection of similar lines or grooves run sideways over this board, spaced out by about one-and-a-half coin lengths. The gaps amid the lines are called the "beds". Five British Half Penny discs (now obsolete pre-decimalisation coinage) or similarly-sized coins or metal discs are placed one-by-one at one boundary of the board slightly jutting over the edge and are shoved forward toward scoring lines, with a collision from the palm of the hand.

Players propel five coins or metal discs (Ha'pennies) up the board in each turn. To brace each coin to be pushed, the player positions the Ha'penny at the forepart of the board with the rear of the disc just sticking over the front brink of the board. Any section of the hand can then be used to poke the disc up the board. If a disc does not quite reach the inaugural line on the board, that coin does not count as having been played and can be shoved further.

At the resolution of the turn each disc that is entirely within a 'bed' (between two horizontal lines and within the adjoining vertical lines) scores a point for that competitor in that bed. The points are scored with chalk marks in the squares at either end of the bed on the end of the board, one competitor owning the right side, the other, the left. The intention is to get three chalk marks in each of the squares - three scores in each of the nine beds. However, once three scores have been produced in a bed, any other scores in that bed will be given to the opponent instead, unless the opponent already has three scores in the bed. The one exception to this is the triumphant point which must be scored properly by the winning competitor, not given away.

Contestants will aim to cause a coin to knock onto one or more previously pushed ha'pennies in an effort to improve their position as well as trying to make a score with the ha'penny being played. A little concentration is also necessary - it is not chiefly a good move to score the third disc in a bed until towards the end of a hand, so as to set up discs in positions that will better the chances that later discs will score by coming up from below and stopping behind the previous coins. This is particularly true in the "progressive" variant of the game, where, after a player's hand of five discs is complete, any scoring discs are recorded and then pulled back to be replayed in the same turn. A player may try to place early discs not only to promote scoring using later coins, but also in such a way as to be pushed by the later discs into positions where further scoring opportunities may be produced. Thus, in this adaptation of the game, a very intelligent (and/or lucky) competitor could hypothetically win the game in a single turn.

Article Source: http://casinoarticles.us

Find out more about shove ha penny.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated