Mumbley peg

[sasquatch]

Mumbley peg

Probably a silly question but did anyone play this as a kid? If you did what were your versions of it? Anyone still do it now? Obviously I'm on about the safer versions being played thesedays, I don't fancy explaining a knife in my 7 year old's foot to my wife...

 

[Retired Member southey]

[video=youtube;7MoEDG5YsMo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MoEDG5YsMo[/video]

Yeah I played that! and though dodgy stil do, but not in polite company!

 

[Ratbag]

We used to play like this:

3-4 boys stand in a circle, maybe 6ft in diameter.
The knife is thrown by the first boy to stick, hopefully, point first into the ground. Without moving the other foot, the boy on his right has to move his nearest foot up to the knife, pull it out of the ground and then it's his turn.

But, if the knife doesn't stick in point first, the thrower has to move his foot up to it, retrieve the knife and pass it to the boy on his left. This tends to guard against stupidly long throws.

The aim of the game is to make your opponents either fall over because their legs are too far apart, or make them unable to move their foot up to the knife to retrieve it. Either of these means that player drops out and the survivors continue. Last man standing is the winner.

I've also played a "chicken" version of this were the knife has to stick in between the opponents feet, the nearest foot is moved inwards and the game progresses. If the knife does not stick in properly the thrower has to halve the gap between his own feet. As time goes on the throws get more and more risky as the space between the feet narrows. I could not recommend this version of the game, especially if played with my old schoolmates.....

Rat

 

[sasquatch]

Good stuff Rat...

Not seen that episode Southey, it's always good for a laugh though innit!

 

[solaris0121]

yes, great flash back from the past - we used to call it 'stick knife' - those were the days in the early eighties when me and my mate could chuck around large sheath knives on the local park in front of the houses without the police being called out - went everywhere in those days with a large knife in the back pocket.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Think my brother and I just called it splits.
Our mother of all people showed us.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Think my brother and I just called it splits.
Our mother of all people showed us.

The mother of all people! You have some impressive friends

 

[Bushwhacker]

The mother of all people! You have some impressive friends

She's all knowing. It's the crystals see.

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah. We played 2 versions. The first was similar to the chicken version already mentioned (only the thrower did not have to move if he failed his throw; he just lost his turn) The second version was "stretch" and as it sounds, it was the opposite of chicken; the thrower tried to stick the knife outside the opponents feet so as to make him stetch farther and farther into a split.

 

[Bluemerle]

Yep, we played stretch and chicken, and 45 years down the road you can still just see the scar in my brothers foot

 

[sasquatch]

Thanks for sharing guys! Nobody's at it thesedays then I take it.

 

[shaggystu]

we used to play chicken (as described by ratbag) but i don't remember it being called anything at all, how we never got seriously injured/prosecuted i shall never know.

passing out at the sight of a 8 inch bowie knife sticking out of your foot then waking up in a puddle of your own blood, snot, and tears, with all your friends standing around you pointing and laughing, happy memories

 

[Ratbag]

Thanks for sharing guys! Nobody's at it thesedays then I take it.

Not with my £500 Ray Mears bushcraft wondertool, noooooooo.....

 

[Dreadhead]

my brother used tae throw darts at me and got one stuck in my foot. does that count?

 

[santaman2000]

we used to play chicken (as described by ratbag) but i don't remember it being called anything at all, how we never got seriously injured/prosecuted i shall never know.

passing out at the sight of a 8 inch bowie knife sticking out of your foot then waking up in a puddle of your own blood, snot, and tears, with all your friends standing around you pointing and laughing, happy memories

Reminds me of a story about a game of chicken between one of my uncles and his cousin. They were splitting firewood (in their early teens in the late 1930s or early 1940s) The cousin put his finger on top of the next piece of firewood and dared my uncle to cut it off. The cousin didn't believe my uncle would swing and my uncle didn't believe he would leave his finger there. From that day onward, the cousin had my uncle wrapped around his finger (pun only partially intended) Whenever he wanted him to do something he would just rub the stump where his finger used to b and my uncle would aquiesse.

 

[boatman]

One time at Buchurst Hill County High School for boys in Essex about 1960ish there must have been at least 100 boys out on the front grass playing this game that we called stretch. So that's at least 50 plus knives, folders and sheath, in the school at any one time yet never a case of stabbing and no accidents except the odd cut from a folder folding.

 

[Soundmixer]

Not mumbley peg as such, but my grandad taught me to play "pitch and toss" with a pocket knife.
Pitch a coin and see who can get their knife closest to the coin. No danger involved, but I was throwing knives around by the time I was seven...

Mumbley peg can raise a few hackles if you mention it on some American forums. One that I frequent closed a thread because it wanted "nothing to do with sticking knives in people as fun". This was in the section that deals with how to kill or maim people with using a gun....

Still, I did learn a lot from one of their members and a bit of google about how to play it properly. One of these days I'll need to try the full game.
http://artofmanliness.com/2011/06/07/mumbley-peg/

Many "pro" players had knives just for the game. Single blade folders like the Case Barehead Trapper were popular because they "stuck in the mud" easier. Other knives like Barlows, Peanuts and assorted Jack knives were the business.
Can't imagine this in schools these days though!