History of Shuffleboard
Back in 15th century England, they played a game of sliding a “groat” down a table - a groat being a rather large British coin of the day, worth about four pence. The game was called shove-groat or slide groat. Later, a silver penny was used and the name of the game became shove-penny or shovel penny.
The game never died. It was played by the young and old, rich and poor. It was a favorite pastime in the great country houses of Staffordshire, Winchester and Wiltshire. There exists today a painting by John Nash, a famous English artist painted in 1839, showing the Great Hall at Littlecotes, Wiltshire, England in 1740. It is a typical scene of a gathering of the wealthy people of the day and it shows shuffleboard being played on a massive table in the center of the hall.
World War II opened the “swinging Forties” and shuffleboard really came into its own. The intrinsic appeal of the game – skill, diversity, competitiveness, availability to young and old, strong and disabled, whether serious or for fun - the game offered the kind of release needed in those turbulent years.
In the forties, Hollywood climbed on the bandwagon and took it up, at first as a source of good publicity. Then when the pin up girls and bandleaders discovered they really liked the game, shuffleboards found their way into the studios and the homes of the stars. People like Betty Grable, Harry James and Alan Ladd all had their own shuffleboards.
Shuffleboard is not just a bar game. It is a game that can be found in Youth Clubs, Universities, Hotels, Bowling Alleys, Recreation Centers and Military bases throughout the world.
It has now been proven that Table Shuffleboard has come full circle and is now appearing in pubs and other venues around the UK and can also be seen on the BBC Television Game Show “Friends Like These” hosted by TV stars “Ant and Dec”.
At present there are over 200,000 tables in use in the United States. There are about 15,000 in use in Canada both with local and regional leagues. shuffleboard.co.uk aims to provide tables throughout the UK with equally competitive leagues.
(reprinted from http://www.shuffleboard.co.uk.com)
