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How to communicate with children, particularly on long journeys and Bank Holidays is a tradition which Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Truths listener Cynthia Collinson's family seem to have got sorted.
Cynthia and her sister were taught the pub cricket game by their mum in the early 1950s, who in turn was taught it by her parents.
Cheating was always a possibility if your sibling dropped off to sleep and didn't notice that you were out. "Being the older sister helped as well because you had an air of superiority about the game".
To play pub cricket, all you need is a car (or motorbike with sidecar), a long journey, good eyesight and...some pubs. Once you find a pub, you then need to work out how many runs that pub scores. Are you following?
They are a few rules:
The 'batter' looks for pubs on either side of the road.
If you were to pass the Duke of Cumberland, for example, you would score 2 runs - The Duke of Cumberland has two legs.
The next pub you come to could be The Polar Bear. So that would score 4 runs, a Polar Bear having four legs.
But your luck runs out when you arrive at the Rose & Crown - no legs, so no runs.
This all adds up to a total of 6 runs scored.
Some pubs can be a bit problematic. Take The Jolly Sailors as an example. Just how many sailors is that...A whole boat load?...a whole navy? Cynthia's parents used to arbitrate in these cases, sticking to a maximum of 10.
Other contentious pubs for Cynthia and her family were The Hark to Mopsy (in Leeds). As Cynthia says, "What the devil is a Mopsy? And more importantly, does it have any legs?"
Cynthia Collinson doesn't know whether her grandparents invented pub cricket. She's mentioned it to other people and no-one else seems to have heard of it.
Have you ever played Pub Cricket ...and maybe you know the origins of the game? Let us know.
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