Marbles Rules And Terms: How To Play Ring Taw And The Rest

Marbles had its own economy, its own vocabulary and its own tense negotiations about whether you were playing for keeps.

Here are the main games, the terms, and how you actually shoot one.

How to shoot

• Knuckle down: the knuckle of your shooting hand must touch the ground, and stay there as you flick.
• Curl your index finger round the marble, brace it with your thumbnail behind it, and flick the thumb.
• Never throw. A thrown marble is a foul in every version and always was.
• Your shooter - the marble you flick - is usually a slightly bigger one you keep hold of. It's called your taw or tolley.
• Practise on carpet. Tarmac punishes a bad thumb.

Ring taw - the main game

• Draw a circle about a metre across on the ground.
• Every player puts an equal number of marbles inside it, usually in a cross shape at the centre.
• Players take turns shooting their taw from outside the ring, trying to knock marbles out.
• Any marble you knock fully out of the ring you keep, and you shoot again from where your taw stopped.
• If you knock nothing out, your turn ends and your taw stays where it lies - where it can be hit by other players.
• If your taw stays inside the ring, you're out and must forfeit the marbles you've won this game. This rule is the whole tension of it.
• The game ends when the ring is empty.

The other games

• Holes, or three holes: dig three small holes in a line. Players shoot from hole to hole and back; first to complete the circuit twice wins, and may then hit opponents' marbles to take them.
• Dropsies: stand and drop your marble onto your opponent's on the ground. Hit it and you keep it. Simplest of all.
• Bounce eye: a small circle with marbles in it, and you drop rather than flick.
• Bridgeboard: a board with numbered arches, and you pay a marble to shoot at them. This is how you lost your collection.
• Long taw: two marbles placed apart, and you try to hit both in turn from a distance.
• Chasing: two players shooting along a path, trying to hit the other's marble. The whole walk home was one long game.

The terms

• Taw or tolley - your shooter, the marble you keep and flick with.
• Keepsies - you keep any marble you win. Friendlies or fairsies - everything goes back at the end. Always establish which before the first shot.
• Knuckle down - the rule that your knuckle touches the ground.
• Fudging or hunching - moving your hand forward as you shoot. A foul.
• Histing - lifting your hand off the ground. Also a foul.
• Lagging - rolling to a line to decide who goes first. Closest shoots first.
• Marble names: cat's eye, alley, aggie, steelie, oxblood, pee wee, boulder, tiger, milky, clearie.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Agree keepsies or friendlies before the first shot.
• Knuckle down or it doesn't count.
• Never put your favourite marble in the ring.

Where to shop next

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Frequently asked questions

What are the rules of marbles?

In the main game, ring taw, players put marbles in a chalk circle and take turns flicking a shooter from outside to knock them out. Marbles you knock out you keep, and you shoot again. If your shooter stops inside the ring, you're out.

How do you shoot a marble properly?

Knuckle down - rest the knuckle of your shooting hand on the ground, curl your index finger round the marble with your thumbnail braced behind it, and flick with the thumb. Throwing is a foul.

What does playing for keepsies mean?

That you keep the marbles you win. The opposite is friendlies or fairsies, where everything goes back to its owner at the end. Agree which one before the first shot - it's the oldest argument in the game.

What is a taw in marbles?

Your shooter - the marble you flick with, usually slightly larger than the rest and never put in the ring. Also called a tolley.

Do you sell games or play equipment?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. Every game here needs a wall, a ball, a piece of chalk or nothing at all, and the only products on this page are our own cards.