Quoits - The Online Guide To Traditional Games

Early Quoits

Quoits is related to another early pub game, the throwing of horseshoes at a pin in the ground. Some theories have it that Quoits developed from Horseshoe pitching as a formalised version of the sport. Horseshoe pitching is still played today, and is particularly popular in certain regions of the USA, the rules being similar to those of the Northern Quoits game outlined below.

The theory espoused by the National Quoits Association is just the opposite. A quoit in ancient times was synonymous with a discus, and so they believe that Quoits and discus are one and the same thing and that Quoits was therefore one of the sports played at the first Greek Olympiad. They also suggest that the Greeks passed on Quoits, a weapon of war, to the Romans who also brought the game to Britain and that the origins may go back even further to the Minoan empire c.2000B.C. where the boy king of Knossos apparently used the discus to cull escaping slaves. Horseshoe pitching in this case came about as a poor-man's version of Quoits using left-over horseshoes instead of the real thing. This theory seems rather dubious in this author's opinion because, well, a discus is not a quoit, either in shape or purpose...

Whatever the origin, the game was certainly being played in England early in the second millennium in roughly the form known today wherein metal rings are thrown up and down a pitch with target pins at either end embedded in areas of soft clay. It seems to have been associated with agricultural and working class people, in particular with the mining industry. Quoits of this era generally were made from poor-quality left over metal from mine forges and this is why main areas of quoit playing seem to have centred around mining communities.

The Long game has a long pedigree and has its stake flush to the clay, which presents an interesting dilemma for historians - did the other versions of quoits where the pin sticks prominently out of the ground derive from it and then evolve the pin out of the clay or did they develop separately or prior to the long game?

The picture to the left shows a ringer from the celtic Long Game with the embedded pin clearly visible. Picture kindly donated by Mrs. Linda Evans, Secretary, Welsh Quoiting Board.

Earlier than 1388, references are vague but quoits was designated as illegal in the Sporting Regulations act of that year. By the 15th Century, there is evidence to show that it had become a well organised sport, not least because of the numerous attempts to eradicate it from the pubs and taverns of England due to it's reputationally seedy character. Not until the nineteenth century is the game documented in any serious way but the game grew in popularity during that century and the official rules first appeared in the April 1881 edition of 'The Field' having been defined by a body formed from pubs in a large area of Northern England.