Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Bar Billiards and Darts at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne

Playing some Darts and Bar Billiards at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne.

Bar Billiards at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne
Brad Shepherd playing some Bar Billiards at The Cock Inn at Luddesdowne

I do enjoy playing pub games, and ever since my mate Brad Shepherd introduced me to the sport of Bar Billiards, via the Indoor League, I've looked to play as many tables as I can find.

On a recent trip to Gravesend we made the short journey to the village of Luddesdowne - between Meopham and Cobham - to visit The Cock Inn to see the traditional pub games there.

Bar Billiards at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne
Brad and I had a cracking game of Bar Billiards. Having not played in a while we got off to a bit of a slow start, but Brad then took the lead, only for me to mount a comeback (curtailed by a break wipeout), followed by another fightback to eventually win 990 to 810

Darts at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne
There's also a 'standard' dartboard at The Cock Inn...

Darts at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne
...as well as three examples of variant dartboards! This was the first time I'd seen a London Fives, Yorkshire Board or a Manchester Log-End Board in the flesh. Brilliant to see

Shove Ha'penny at The Cock Inn, Luddesdowne, Kent
There was also a Shove Ha'penny slate at the pub. I've played on a wooden board, but never seen the game on a slate before

Check out the Patrick Chaplin (aka Dr Darts) website for more on the history of the dartboard.

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1 comment:

Richard Gottfried said...

Following my visit The Cock Inn at Luddesdowne I recommended the pub to Matt Eley at Inapub. There's a feature on the Inapub website at 'Playing the Generation Game'.

It's also in the April 2015 magazine.