Oh, and in case you’re thinking, ‘Cheese skittles – say what?’, here’s a quick description for the uninitiated:
- The game itself can be traced back to similar games played in Ancient Egypt
- It’s similar to ten pin bowling, except there are nine pins, arranged in a grid pattern
- Instead of a bowling ball you throw a big heavy wheel of cheese at the skittles, to knock them over
- Much to my disappointment, the ‘cheese’ isn’t actually made of cheese. It’s a wheel of wood that only looks like a cheese. I guess real cheese would be a tad impractical, although it would make it that much more fun…
- You don’t roll the cheese, you have to instead hurl it through the air, without it bouncing, and try to knock down as many pins as you can
- You don’t count the number of pins knocked down, but the number of throws it takes you to clear the frame. You get up to four throws to try and do this.
- The skittles alley that we played at was in the basement of the Freemason’s Arm’s pub in Hampstead, North London – and it’s the last of its kind in London.
The trip to the skittles club was very nearly a big fail. I’d contacted the skittles club earlier in the week to check that they would be playing on Saturday, like it said on the website. They said yes they would be there. But when Alex and I arrived to the oh-so-posh Freemason’s Arm’s pub in Hampstead, the bar staff told us we had the day wrong and that the game was only played on Tuesday nights. Feeling a bit bewildered, we decided to make the most of the situation by grabbing a pint, and followed by some dinner when we realised the menu was pretty decent.
Halfway through our dinner one of the bartenders came over and excitedly told us that the skittles club had arrived, and that we could join them downstairs in the bowling alley if we wanted to. As if he had to ask!
Downstairs, we met the members of the London skittles club, who were excited to have two Kiwi’s joining them for the evening. They told us all about the game, showed us the ropes, and let us play them. The club members were absolutely lovely and really took a shine to Alex, especially when he proved to be quite a natural with the old cheese hurling and very nearly won a bottle of champagne that the reigning champion had put down as a wager. He’d thought that as first-timers, we’d be crap, and jokingly said “I’ll buy a bottle of champagne if Alex beats me”. As the game progressed he looked more and more nervous, but fortunately for him, he won by a mere point.
* Update: For the record, I was wrong. The man did not beat Alex – it was in fact a tie! My bad!
For the record, it’s harder than it looks to bodily hurl a hunk of wood several metres down a bowling alley. Especially when you’re a girl. Who’s 5 foot 6. And not very strong. It’s a bit easier to do if you’re a boy. Who’s 6 foot 7. And who goes to the gym more than I do. But hey, it was fun!
The verdict? A lot of fun! Cheese skittling is definitely something I’d take a friend to if they were visiting London and wanted to do something out of the ordinary. The ongoing banter between the players really ‘makes’ it, and the club members were unbelievably friendly. It’s quite a slow-paced game, really, so if you’re after a nice leisurely evening sipping beer and chatting with other players, give it a go.
Oh – and on the way to the pub, I saw Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton walk past, arm in arm. First celebrity sighting in London – woop woop!
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