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Unusual Pub Games - Marbles
Anyone fancy a game of marbles? Not the usual thing you'd hear in a pub is it, darts or dominoes probably but marbles?
The Marble World Championship is an annual event in the village of Tinsley Green in W est Sussex based firmly around the Greyhound pub. A source of local pride since the 1930's when the first championship was held, it still attracts many hundreds today.
Marbles have been played in and around Tinsley Green for many hundreds of years. It’s said that in the time of Good Queen Bess, two young men, one from Surrey the other from Sussex competed for the hand of a maiden from Tinsley, which is just on the border of the two counties. They played all the major sports of the time; Archery, Falconry, Wrestling and the like. After each match they were adjudged equal; then one of them came up with the game of Marbles. As an odd number of marbles are used in the game one of them had to be the winner. Unfortunately history does not record the name of the first marble champion, but the game has continued right up to the present day.
It was back in the 1930s that Mr. F Hannam, of Victoria Road, Horley first suggested that the game should be organised into the present championships. It was also Mr. Hannam who gave the first trophy
‘The Greyhound Hotel Challenge Cup’ this cup was played for up until 1938 when it was lost. The first year of the new championships was 1932, and a team won the cup from the Black Horse at Hookwood. Captain Edgar Stanley of the Black Horse, Mr. Hannam, the competitors and the crowd were all filmed for ‘Pathe News’. This was the first of many occasions that marbles were filmed for news at home and abroad. Over the years many players and many teams have attended the championships; Tinsley Tigers, Copthorne Spitfires, Handcross Rebels and Toucan Terribles are just a few. There have also been the organizers and players who were characters. Sam Spooner, Ted Mobsby, Jim ‘Atomic Thumb’ Longhurst, Arthur Chamberlain, George Burbridge, ‘Wee Willie’ Wright, Harry Langridge, Len Smith and George ‘Pop’ Maynard. These players out of hundreds that have played at Tinsley green had that something extra.
Sam Spooner was a local cowman who lived nearly all of his life at Tinsley Green, the exception being a short spell with the British Army in India. When marbles were revived in the 1930s Sam used the same tolley that he had used when he was champion in the 1880s, some 45 years before. In 1935 Sam along with Ted Mobsby who organized the championships from 1935 until 1946, was asked to appear on the popular radio program ‘In Town Tonight’. At the rehearsal all went well, with Ted running his finger along the lines of the script for old Sam’s eyes to focus on. When the show went on the air, Ted continued to do the same until Sam remonstrated, “Move your bloody finger, Ted I’ve read that bit before". After the show the producer commented that it was one of the most natural interviews he had ever heard!
Sam died in 1946 at the age of 85 and a plaque to his memory is now displayed outside the Greyhound overlooking his beloved marbles ring.
Jim Longhurst, a jobbing gardener from Slaugham was born in 1893 and revelled in his nickname of ‘Atomic Thumb’. Tall, wiry and of ruddy complexion, Jim would astound all spectators with his legendary power of tolley flicking. Jim would place a thick glass beer mug four feet away from him and then with amazing speed and accuracy the ‘Atomic Thumb’ would send his favourite tolley straight at the glass, leaving it in splinters. When first interviewed, Jim said that he had been playing marbles since he was at school, “Not the way most children do, but the proper way-a flick of the thumb without moving the hand” (known as fudging). “It was my dad that taught me to play, why I even met my wife when playing marbles”. Some tips he passed on to younger players were to constantly flick your thumb to keep it in trim and to roughen new glass marbles with a brick to obtain a better grip. For many years Jim was captain of the Handcross Bulldogs and is the grandfather of the 1979 and 1980 champion Barry Ray.
Arthur Chamberlain who was individual champion in 1954 trained the Slaugham scout team who won the junior championships from 1952 until 1957. His son Tom with Barry Ray, Richard Haylar and David Knape were all one time members of the scout team and four still played at Tinsley Green (1980). But are now known as the Handcross Rebels, team winners in 1977 and 1979.
‘Wee Willie Wright’ as a 5ft 2in Welshman, small in size but big in stature as a marble player, he was five times winner of the individual title at Tinsley Green. The diminutive Welshman was renowned for his ‘secret weapon’ a hot water bottle sewn inside his coat, to keep his thumb warm and the circulation going. Willie was thought to be one of the best players ‘inside the ring’. As one of his teammates told me, “If Willie got inside the ring the game was ours”.
Willie’s team, the Tinsley Tigers, won the team title from 1950 until 1955. The team comprised Bert Sired, his sons Harry and Bert Jr., Harry Langridge, three times individual title holder, the left handed George Burberry, a Thatcher from Three Bridges and Wee Willie Wright himself. The team last played in 1962 when glass marbles were used for the first time in place of older clay ones. Willie finally lost his individual title in 1960 to Len of the Telcon Terribles, who won the title, on and off, 12 times. Willie, who lived at Southwater nr Horsham, died a few years ago in his late 60s.
In 1955 the first New Town team took part in the championships, they were called the A.P.V. Acrobats and the captain was Len Roberts who two years later formed the Telcon Terribles. The Terribles continued playing until 1976 when they were disbanded. After they won the championship for the first time in 1957 their trainer E C Larkman said, “Our aim was to play as a team rather than as individuals, and I think that is why we won”. Three members of this team played for 19 years until they were beaten in 1975, they were Jack and Charlie Dempsey and often individual winner Len Smith. In 1963 the Terribles went with George Burbridge up to London to appear on ‘Here and Now’ a TV programme with Michael Ingrams and Vanessa Thornton. They also changed the team name from the Telcon (a local factory) to the Toucan Terribles, hoping for sponsorship from a well-known brewery.
A figure synonymous with Tinsley Green and the marbles championships was George ‘Pop’ Maynard, captain of the Copthorne Spitfires. ‘Pop’ was born in Smallfields just over the Surrey border but it was not long after that his family moved to Copthorne, where he remained for the rest of his long life. He first gained national recognition in 1948 when the Copthorne Spitfires won the team event and ‘Pop’ appeared on TV. He was also a well-known folk-singer and was recorded by the BBC. Some of his songs can be heard on a Topic record. ‘Pop’ was 82 years old when he first flew and it was with George Burbridge and the Tinsley Tigers to Le Touquet, France. They were guest of the Mayor and Corporation of the town and gave exhibitions of marbles in the town and on the beach. A year later in 1955 he opened a marbles ring at Jordans, in the London Road; he did it by dropping a marble into the ring from a three seater Bell helicopter.
In his latter years ‘Pop’ suffered with arthritis in his hand but he could still knock the last marble from the ring right up to the end. He died in 1962 at the age of 90.
These are just some of the many players and teams from Tinsley Green. There were and still are many players, but it’s the event itself and not just the Champions that make it what it is, a good morning out for all.
It would seem that in the 1840s the village Inn at Tinsley was called the ‘Roebuck’, as in the Times of 3rd January 1846 there is a report of a “Dreadful Accident”. A railway man leaving the Roebuck, Tinsley Green was hit and killed by an express train.
John Lovegrove, of Charlwood and Faygate, was born in 1832 and married Mary Welfare, who had been born in 1841 and whose father kept the ‘Greyhound Inn’ at Tinsley Green in 1858, she died in 1907.
Mary’s granddaughter wrote “My Grandfather John of Faygate paid the debts of the Innkeeper and said if he would give him his 16 year old daughter in marriage he wouldn’t want the money back. So poor Mary Welfare had no say in the matter and thought her husband was like a great bear with his bushy beard, and found life very hard at first"
The Mellersh and Neale Brewery was located at, 19 High Street, Reigate in Surrey and they owned the original Greyhound at Tinsley Green, when the marbles were first revived in 1932. This was not the present building but the old style cottage pub, which can still be seen to the right of today’s home of marbles. This long established brewery, dating back to the sixteenth century was famous for the quality of its beers praised in a drinking song, which began:
Let us sing the song of beer Sir,
Which is brewed by Mellersh and Neale,
It flows in the tankard so cool dear,
As clear as a quality’s seal.
Sing hey, ringle dangle,
Sing ho my jolly crew,
For Mellersh and Neale’s beer, Sir,
Is Britain’s bonniest brew!
Mr Graham Neale from the brewing family was still supporting the championships right up to 1963; at that time he was the Managing Director of Friary Meux.
In 1936 Mellersh and Neale built the Greyhound we know today, when the new pub was completed it had the innovation of having three marbles rings set in the grounds ready for the next championship. In June 1938 the Meux Brewery Company, acquired Mellersh and Neale and in 1939 Meux and company presented the silver cup, which is still awarded, to the team champions to this day. It has all the team winners from 1939 to the present day engraved on it.
In 1956 came the merger with the Friary Holroyd and Healey’s Brewery Co. Ltd. from Guildford. The new name of Friary Meux arrived at Tinsley Green.
The 1960’s were a time of considerable change in the brewing industry as one brewery after another merged, forming larger and larger companies. In 1961 Ind Coope, Tetley Walker and Ansells joined forces to form ICTA. In 1963 this group adopted the name Allied Breweries, and in 1964 took over Friary Meux Ltd and the Greyhound Hotel. Allied Breweries held the Greyhound until it sold all its licensed houses to Punch Taverns in 1999. There was yet another change in 2002 when the Greyhound was moved to become part of the Sprit Group.
The first major makeover of the pub came in 1986, when architect Ian Thomson rebuilt most of the interior, changing the original six small bars into two big ones. The outside pillars were repainted in a blue marble effect, and then changed to the present red colour. There was also a new sign, which lasted until Punch Taverns took over and a new one without the old Brewery name on it was put up.
In 1932 when the championships began the landlord was Alf Farrinton, who was followed by Ron Westbrook in the 1940’s Mr. Westbrook died just before he retired in 1975. Gordon Cantwell took over and with Dennis and Doug; the Brothers as they were known ran the pub and supported the marbles out of their own pockets up until Gordon’s death in 1984. After this time the Greyhound was run by managers who changed every couple of years.
The old Mellersh and Neale brewery in Reigate was demolished in 1988.
The PHS would like to extend thanks to Sam McCarthy-Fox for the above article and photos.
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