Welcome to Arun Cribbage League.
People from the Six Villages who enjoy playing the age-old game of Cribbage make up a large percentage of the local Thursday League, whose membership extends from Storrington to Bognor.
Mike Millis, secretary of the Thursday League, said that out of 16 teams in the league, six of them come from the Six Village area.
The traditional pub game is said to have been invented by the notorious poet Sir John Suckling in 1632 but it is very similar to an earlier game, played in Tudor times Sir John was said to be a womanizer, gambler and fraudster but he seems to have been an excellent publicist and knowledge of Cribbage quickly spread.
The game played in Tudor times was called 'Noddy', which in those days meant someone who was not very intelligent.
Perhaps the name Cribbage appealed to people more and it soon became popular in inns all over Britain and continues to be so, especially in historic pubs In the Six Villages, there are teams from The Labour in Vain at Westergate, The Black Horse at Binsted, The Maypole Inn and The Shoulder of Mutton & Cucumber at Yapton, The Prince of Wales at Woodgate and The Aldingboume Club at Aldingbourne Community Centre. Cribbage is the only card game allowed to be played for small stakes in licensed premises. Almost all the other pubs in the Six Villages have had teams at various times. Trophy records show that the Thursday League has existed for at least 45 years, but many people remember their grandparents playing and it is possible that the league goes back at least as far as the 1920s.
Mike said that Crib is an excellent game because it involves a combination of skill and luck. "It keeps you intellectually on the ball," he said. His parents still play twice a week although they are in there nineties.
When Mike was eight, his grandfather taught him. Beginners usually start by watching other people and then play one-to-one before graduating to team games. "It's good educationally and socially. If you play within a family, most of the family plays. My children do."
Shirley Nichols is captain of the Crib Team at the Maypole Inn in Yapton agrees. She also belongs to the Monday League Nomads team. Who have just won the Champion of Champions? Trophy.
Shirley said her lather taught her to play when she was five. Which did not please her mother.
"She thought I was too young to learn to play. But it put me ahead with numbers when I went to school."
League games require a minimum of nine people a side, four to play with a partner and one person to play singles. There are no maximum numbers but usually there are ten people in a team so that everyone has a partner.
A match is decided on the premises. Almost all the other pubs in the Six Villages have had teams at various times. Trophy records show that the best of five games and each team in the league plays home and away against the other 15. At the end of the season they compete against the two other leagues in West Sussex.
The scoring board used for Cribbage, like those used for Backgammon and Mancala, is believed to be descended from game boards used by the ancient Egyptians.
Mike has a collection of historic Cribbage boards and his wife Vicky, who also plays Crib, collects packs of playing cards some of which are about 100 years old. Mike has to fit Cribbage into a very full life.
He was in the navy for 33 years and acted as captain of the Sail Training Fleet for the Joint Services during his final eight years. He is still involved with Sail Training International and will be assistant race director for this year's Tall Ships Race. He also supervises community service workers for the Probat service and is a driver for WestDoc, the local out-of-hours doctor service.
