kids games of the 70's and 80's

Seeing Timwilkys thread on Murderball and reading some of the memories reminds me of the many games we used to play as children in teh 70's and early 80's which I dont see children playing these days. Thought I would share a few with you. I am sure these where played round the country with different names.

One Handed Catch;

Equipment one large featureless wall, one tennis ball. Rules, start with 3 lifes throw the ball against the wall and then opponents try to catch it (one handed obviously), loose a life by a rebounded ball hitting you, dropping the ball and or missing the wall. Loose all three lifes you had to stand facing the wall while the other players took a turn in throwing the tennis ball as hard as they can at you. (great game!)

50 50 all out;

a version of hide and seek in which they is a base station (normally a lighting column) where the seeker counts while others hide. Aim of the game to make it back to the lighting column before the seeker sees you shouting 50 50 all out. If the seeker sees you first they run back and shout 50 50 seen you (name)(location)

Kerby;

Equipment one football, a road with kerbs. two players standing on opposite footways taking in turn to throw the ball at the opponents kerb. if it rebounds and you catch it, one point if it rebounds and you dont catch it, 1/2 point. First one to 21 wins.

Cupties;

A version of header and volleys, i.e. one goalie a few players and must score by either a header or volley, mistake means your next in goal.

British bulldog;

normall rules start with one catcher and loads of runners, run from oneside fo the playground to the other, you get caught you become a catcher. last person left as runner wins.

Swing footy;

equipement 4 swings and a football, minimum of 12 players. Start with 4 kids on swings and one standing in front and one standing behind each swing. take it in turns to try and get the football into the lap of the swingers for an immediate out or if they kick it and yuu catch it they are out standing players rotate onto the swings.


Loads more but this will do for now. Did any of you guys play version of these? love to know what they were called or any rule variations. Or any games you remember playing. Already passed on Kerby to my kids.

50/50 sounds like Acky Tracky, unlimited players, usually around 10 tho,

even teams and you would have a tracking team and a hiding team, a base to get to.

if your hiding, you would have to get to base and shout acky tracky 123 to make yourself safe, if the catcher got you, he would have to hold onto you and shout acky tracky 123 then you would be out.

also a variation of this is called Beat the letter, same as acky tracky but the hiding team are given a word and each player a letter of said word, if they catch you, they beat you til you give up the letter. then they have to work out the word. Fun, exercise and educational

Originally Posted by Rog

One Handed Catch;

Equipment one large featureless wall, one tennis ball. Rules, start with 3 lifes throw the ball against the wall and then opponents try to catch it (one handed obviously), loose a life by a rebounded ball hitting you, dropping the ball and or missing the wall. Loose all three lifes you had to stand facing the wall while the other players took a turn in throwing the tennis ball as hard as they can at you. (great game!)

50 50 all out;

a version of hide and seek in which they is a base station (normally a lighting column) where the seeker counts while others hide. Aim of the game to make it back to the lighting column before the seeker sees you shouting 50 50 all out. If the seeker sees you first they run back and shout 50 50 seen you (name)(location)

Kerby;

Equipment one football, a road with kerbs. two players standing on opposite footways taking in turn to throw the ball at the opponents kerb. if it rebounds and you catch it, one point if it rebounds and you dont catch it, 1/2 point. First one to 21 wins.

Cupties;

A version of header and volleys, i.e. one goalie a few players and must score by either a header or volley, mistake means your next in goal.

British bulldog;

normall rules start with one catcher and loads of runners, run from oneside fo the playground to the other, you get caught you become a catcher. last person left as runner wins.

Yep, played all of these as a young'un.

Also did one called lobsies, which was to throw a tennis ball as far as you could. One who threw the furthest wons. Epic game.

Also remember one where the punishment for losing was to run (crouched) through a tunnel formed by the rest of the players, while they kicked you as you passed.

Originally Posted by tom-k6

50/50 sounds like Acky Tracky, unlimited players, usually around 10 tho,

even teams and you would have a tracking team and a hiding team, a base to get to.

if your hiding, you would have to get to base and shout acky tracky 123 to make yourself safe, if the catcher got you, he would have to hold onto you and shout acky tracky 123 then you would be out.

also a variation of this is called Beat the letter, same as acky tracky but the hiding team are given a word and each player a letter of said word, if they catch you, they beat you til you give up the letter. then they have to work out the word. Fun, exercise and educational

I described that very game on the other thread, must be a birmingham/redditch thing lol. They used to play beat the letter too.

Originally Posted by Rog

50 50 all out;

a version of hide and seek in which they is a base station (normally a lighting column) where the seeker counts while others hide. Aim of the game to make it back to the lighting column before the seeker sees you shouting 50 50 all out. If the seeker sees you first they run back and shout 50 50 seen you (name)(location)

All the kids in my street used to play this together all the time, only we called it 'Whippet' for some inexplicable reason

Since most of the neighbours had kids that we played with we used to be able to garden-hop along all the backs and all sorts to try & get back to the lamp-post without being seen.

Kerby;

Equipment one football, a road with kerbs. two players standing on opposite footways taking in turn to throw the ball at the opponents kerb. if it rebounds and you catch it, one point if it rebounds and you dont catch it, 1/2 point. First one to 21 wins.

Remember this well - the scene in Wayne's World where they play hockey in the street always reminded me of Kerby for the way we used to have to shout 'car' every few minutes, though we still lost a fair few footballs that got ran over...

Cupties;

A version of header and volleys, i.e. one goalie a few players and must score by either a header or volley, mistake means your next in goal.

We used to play Sixties, which was headers & volleys, but the 'keeper threw the ball out & you only had 60 secs to score with a header/volley or the last one to touch it (or if the keeper caught your shot) went in goal.

British bulldog;

normall rules start with one catcher and loads of runners, run from oneside fo the playground to the other, you get caught you become a catcher. last person left as runner wins.

Classic! We used to play full-contact Bulldog, the length of the school rugby pitch from try line to the other. Being last man standing when your whole year is lined up across the half-way line waiting for you was pretty scary - you just knew it was going to hurt!

When we got a bit older and had a couple of older mates who could drive we used to play 'Manhunt' - a bit like Whippet, only played in the middle of the night and the playing area was almost the entire town, though you had to stick to roads because the 'seeker' was in a car driving around with some of those yellow headlight covers (the sort you used to have to put on to drive in France) to identify the car. If the seeker spotted you he would jump out of the car, give chase and catch you. Once caught you joined the seeker in the car and the winner was the last one standing. You could never play this game now cos the police would be called the instant someone was spotted screeching to a halt, jumping out of a car & giving chase to someone on foot, then bundling them in the back of the car! Even back then it's a wonder no-one was arrested or had an accident! Luckily the town where I grew up was fairly rural at the time...

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Rog

50 50 all out;

a version of hide and seek in which they is a base station (normally a lighting column) where the seeker counts while others hide. Aim of the game to make it back to the lighting column before the seeker sees you shouting 50 50 all out. If the seeker sees you first they run back and shout 50 50 seen you (name)(location)

We called this "1,2,3 done ya" we used to play a variation where if the last person hiding made it back safely to the base before the seeker and shouted "1,2,3 save all" the seeker had to be "on" again. Loved this game. Played it on the way back from the pub with some mates a few years ago until about 5am absolutely hilarious. It was taken deadly serious, with james bond rolls down muddy hills and apparitions from grit bins.

we called it Kick the can .. if u got caught u went to the post.. ( a coke can) .. and waited.. if anyone on your team got there before being caught they kicked the can and everyone was free

[2000curvy]

Re 50 50 all out

We in the Leicester Masseeve called it Poddy 1 2 3. If you got back to the base before being seen you shouted 3 Pod. If the person who was 'on' saw you they went back to the base and shouted Poddy 1 2 3 and said who they had seen and where they had seen them

Bulldog was banned at our primary school as the older kids who generally played it kept knocking over the younger kids as we all charged across the playground. Was a shame as it was an amazing game. People actually turned up over an hour before school started to play it

Used to play blue murder.
2 teams, one were the hunted, other was the hunters...
Hunted team chooses a word that had the same amount of letters as members of the team.
Each player gets a letter, aim of the game was for the hunters to guess the word.
Hunted team gets 2 minutes to hide/get away from the hunters, then the hunt started.
You had to force the letter out of the players to guess the word...
Got quite violent and messy, its a darker versions of 'Hares and Hounds'

Played kerby and British Bulldogs also...

Problem nowadays is the red tape brigade, the police (had footballs confiscated for playing kerby) and moaning old barstewards who dont like to see kids on the street after 6pm...