Aunt Sally at the Bear at Home Inn

Aunt Sally is a simple game played by throwing wooden sticks or batons at a wooden skittle known as an Aunt Sally. The wooden Aunt Sally or Dolly is positioned on a piece of angle iron positioned in a vertical hollow rod two and a half feet above the ground. Eight player teams each throw six stub-ended 18" long wooden sticks at the dolly from behind a line known as the "hockey" which is 10 yards from the iron. Each turn consists of six throws and a winning point is only counted when the stick hits the doll before the iron. Hitting the doll is really quite tricky.

The game dates back to the 17th Century and may have been introduced by Royalist soldiers during the English Civil war when King Charles I set up his Royalist court in Oxford in opposition to the Parliamentarians in London. Despite the game only being played in Oxfordshire it is still a very popular game indeed taken very seriously by regular players in serious leagues.

There are two possibilities for the development of the game. One is that is an evolution of a 14th century game called 'kayles' which is a skittles game in which differently shaped skittles must be knocked over using an underarm throw. The largest of the skittles may have become the Aunt Sally.

An alternative theory ascribes Aunt Sally as an evolution of the barbaric game of "throwing at cocks". In this game a cock would be tied by one leg to a stake in the ground and the participants would then pay for a turn at throwing a "cok-steles" or small club at the bird. Whoever killed the bird won it and was able to take it home for dinner. If the bird's leg was broken, the creature would be supported on sticks until the bitter end.

After last years debacle, we are confident of an improved performance from our team this Summer. Capt Slade has several new signings, and competition for places is likely to be hot. I confidently predict a bold showing- you heard it here first !