Street games: British Bulldog was a favourite street game

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Playground and street games with names like Egg, Baste the Bear and Sling the Monkey were recalled by Anton Rippon in a recent article about his 1950s’ childhood. They reminded Joe Coleman, of Chaddesden, of some of his own playground favourites – British Bulldog and Squares in particular, as he recounts here.

ANTON Rippon’s description of childhood games in the 1950s was awe-inspiring and reminded me of how clever and imaginative kids were back then.

I remember a game called British Bulldog which was similar to a game Anton described.

It was a sort of “Catch me if you can” type of game but more violent and egos were quite often bruised when the catcher, who stood in the centre of an enclosed area of a field, caught a runner and shouted: “British Bulldog, one, two, three”.

That person then had to stand alongside the catcher and help him catch another victim, violently or otherwise. The winner was the one left uncaught after running safely past all those who had been caught. It could be quite a bloody game and was strictly for the lads.

My own personal favourite was Squares. A 12ft by 12ft square was created, usually using school jumpers and blazers, and a group of about 10 people sat inside it.

Someone outside the square had the job of kicking a softish, size 5 football at the “insiders”. If the ball hit the players on any part of the body, except the fist, feet, top of the head or forehead, they lost one of three lives.

The winner was the last person sitting. You could punch, kick or head the ball but if the catcher caught it in mid-air then the kicker or puncher also lost a life.

If the ball bounced, then the catcher could only used one hand to catch it outside the square and wherever the ball landed was where the catcher had to kick the ball back into the square from.

When you were out, you had to help the player outside the square get everyone else out. The last two players in the square would jointly decide to declare themselves winners and end the game on a stalemate.

Anyone with a foot outside the square lost a life and, if the ball remained longer than 10 seconds inside the square, then everyone lost a life – which, of course, was a tactical manoeuvre if someone had lost two lives.

It was an exciting and original game from my past and should be revisited these days, not just by youngsters but could possibly be used in training by Derby County.

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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.