Marble games

THE marble games that I played with the neighbourhood kids during my boyhood were wonderfully exciting. Three boys who lived a few houses from my place often invited me to play with them a game called “Hitting the Target”, which was all the rage with children back then.

In this game, we drew two lines on the ground that were four feet apart and parallel to each other, one measuring five feet and the other six inches. Each player contributed three multi-coloured glass marbles for each set we played, making a total of 12 marbles. The winner therefore won nine marbles. (The 12 marbles were shared equally if there were two or three winners.)