• This topic has 32 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by colp.
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  • Marble names
  • johndoh
    Free Member

    To follow on from an office conversation

    We got

    singles
    doubles
    pots
    dobbers
    pot dobbers
    steelies
    squigglies
    clearies
    spagetti junctions
    leeds uniteds
    pot dobber steelies

    what else?

    nbt
    Full Member

    Fivers and tenners (larger than singles and doubles)
    Bollies (from ball bearings I would guess, hence the same as steelies?)

    captaincarbon
    Free Member

    singles
    queens
    kings
    chinese
    glass alley!

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    Peyote
    Free Member

    Bloodshot – Translucent red ones, I think Queen size
    Bluemoon – Same as Bloodshots, but blue.

    Frenchies – the white ones with colours on the surface
    Blocks – (Kings or Queens)
    Clearsies – plain glass

    PiknMix
    Free Member

    What new language is this?

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Ord – ordinary – regular marbles.
    Dobber – the big ones.
    Catsie – corruption of “cat’s eye” I think – those milky white ones.
    Crystal – fully clear apart from bubbles
    Spider – a bit like a crystal, but with white spider-leg stripes.
    Spaghetti – bit like a Spider but more squiggly internals.

    Combinations were possible, a dobber-catsie for example, and we had a highly complicated trade rate which we all knew was gospel fact but in hindsight was probably made up entirely by seven-year-old marble shark Chris Bartlett depending on what marbles he had in his bag and what he wanted.

    yunki
    Free Member

    oilies and chinas

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Sizes in order (as far as I can remember)

    littlies
    jacks
    biggies
    queenies
    Kings
    ali bompas (these were rare)

    Then the types:
    normal
    cat’s eye
    joker’s lips
    zulu
    clearie
    spotted dick
    oilies
    ball bearians (actually ball bearings but we seemed to have a hard time getting that right)
    EDIT and chinas too yes

    Now, how did you play the game? When we did it you had to hit the other person’s marble for a win, but the ratio was decided on value. So to win a biggie with a littlie you had to hit them twice but they only had to hit you once, so you’d say ‘twice-once’ at the beginning of the game and you’d tap him twice and he’d tap you once, like boxers touching gloves I suppose. The ratios for the sizes were well recognised but there’d be plenty of argument with regards the value of the specials.

    Now my memory gets dim here, but there were loads of special moves you could call, like if he landed really close to you but didn’t hit you could call ‘drops’ where you stood up and dropped the marble on his. there were many of these calls but I’ve compleltey forgotten.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Ooh, I forgot oilies.
    And steelies.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    oilies and chinas

    I wonder if Carol Decker was a big marbles player as a kid? That’d explain it.

    There was also a particular “season” for playing marbles, and you laughed at anyone caught playing out of seasons.

    I think it was just after the conker season.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Why has no-one mentioned Juicers yet?

    therealhoops
    Free Member

    galleon wines – named after several off licences who had pale green and white logos

    milkies – were the white non transparent ones

    mrmoofo
    Full Member

    Was Doughney just a Birmingham thing then …

    Marble naming conventions obvioulsy change with time and geography.

    Probably a PHD thesis in that for somebody.

    Anna-B
    Free Member

    The only two I can remember are spesh and biggy spesh….but I don’t recognise any of the names above, so maybe somewhatslightlydazed has a point! Early 80s, West Mids…..

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I was in the west mids too, I remember the name special but I don’t recall what they were. I think maybe ones with a flaw?

    user-removed
    Free Member

    Tattie-mashers (anything bigger than a normal marble)
    Clays (made of clay…).

    Quite fancy a game now!

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Cats eyes and dogs eyes. One was blue and one was green but I can’t remember which. My cat at the time had one blue and one green eye so that confused things for me.

    One of the guys in our school had a french boule in his marble bag. The notorious one-hundred-er steelie. A weapon on mass destruction.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    Now what about game names.

    I only remember ‘Shovesies’

    mudshark
    Free Member

    My memory is failing me.

    We called the china ones squids and the clear ones bottle washers. Queen and King size were the biggest ones, the most sort after was a ginger King size marble that was very rare – in my school anyway.

    Pigface
    Free Member

    Guppies
    Emperors
    Spirals though that one is a bit hazy.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    We only had 2 names: dobbers (the big ones) and Chinese (white opaque ones with coloured patterns)

    technicallyinept
    Free Member

    I can only remember ‘dobbers’.

    My primary school briefly banned marbles. Not because of ‘elf ‘n’ safety but because it was causing too many arguments. Someone had a (rather beautiful) single opaque tomato red dobber confiscated (and deposited in the bin by the teacher). Pretty sure I still have it after I ‘rescued’ it from the bin.

    lasty
    Free Member

    Marbles ??

    PAH !!

    TORS in Leeds when I were a lad ….

    stuey
    Free Member

    Blood-alley

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    When I was a sprog, waaaay back in the 60’s marbles had the generic name of ‘muggles’. Can’t remember individual names. (well can you blame me, it’s a sodding long time ago!)

    grilla
    Free Member

    big marbles were Trons at my school, I assumed that was what everyone called them, I guess not

    mulv1976
    Free Member

    I’m sure there was one called a ‘speckled granny’ – large and clear with specks all over the surface.

    Also ‘pearly’ and ‘blue moon’ or maybe I’ve made them up…

    jamiep
    Free Member

    ‘big docker’ (I think a bastardisation of ‘big dobber’) which was the big one that cleared the decks

    priceyboy
    Free Member

    Birmingham, mid Seventies…I’m sure we called the large ones Gobbies

    colp
    Full Member

    Liverpool we had the jazz and the jazz-dink

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