Sjoelbak Info The game of Sjoelen is a traditional game loosely based on a 16th century English game called “shove ha penny”, adapted and adopted by the Dutch two centuries ago and now the game in its present form is growing in popularity in many other countries. The game is popular with all ages and played for fun especially during the holidays, but it is also played competitively in leagues in Holland, Belgium and Germany.  There will be a European championship held this year in Holland. The game of Sjoelen might one day even be approved as an Olympic sport. We hope that Americans and Canadians will be ready for the challenge and field teams of their own on that day. The Game The board should be placed on top of a table and the game is mostly played while standing but can also be played sitting down. The Game consists of a wooden board approx. 16” wide by 79” long with a 4-slot portal bar and 30 pucks, which are used to play the game How to Play the Game Taking turns the player with the highest score wins. Each turn consists of three rounds. The player slides all available pucks down the board aiming for the slots. After the first and second round, all pucks that did not go into a slot are returned to the player, the pucks that went in the slots should be stacked in the back of the slot. After the third and last round the pucks in the four slots are totaled using the following scoring system. Each puck is counted at face value until the player gets a set (1 puck in every slot)  a set doubles the score for those 4 pucks (2+3+4+1=10x2=20) Getting as many sets as possible greatly improves your score. . For example in this picture: Slot 2 has 4 pucks Slot 3 has 4 pucks Slot 4 has 4 pucks Slot 1 has 3 pucks In this score there are 3 sets counting as 3x20 and the remaining pucks count once for a total of 60 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 69 The puck needs to cross the front of the slot bar to be counted. This picture (from the top) shows puck 1 does not count, Puck 4 counts, puck 3 does not count and puck 2 counts.   The maximum score is 148 (7x20+2x4=148), but it could be higher if you accomplish this score in your 1st or 2nd sub-turn. In that case you will get an extra (2) or (1) puck respectively. So it might be possible to get a score of 148+4+4=156. These are the basic rules, many families add their own “house rules” in regards to pucks bouncing back, landing on top of each other, bouncing out etc. For more detailed tournament rules you can check various websites. More information Picture of international competition courtesy the Belgian Sjoelbak Federation FYI, in the 2009 World Championship games, the average scores were: for The Netherlands 2: 140.18 points, for Germany 1: 132.16 and for Belgium 1: 130.08. In other words we have a long way to go to beat the Dutch at their game.

 

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