This morning on The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show, the lads took a stroll down memory, reminiscing about all those brilliant games we played as children, ‘Kerbs’ in particular. For me, growing up in The Grove in Celbridge, it was all about Rounders. The entire estate would gather on the green with someone’s racket, a tennis ball and a load of jumpers. If you were good at Rounders, you were good at life. I would LOVE to recreate it now. Only, I’d probably only make it to first base. Leave your filthy minds at the door please. Remember these?!
1) Bulldog
From what I can remember, Bulldog was scary. Really scary. Basically, there was one bulldog (one of your friends with their brother’s basketball) and loads of kids running around dodging aforementioned ball. It was dangerous, it was hectic, it was noisy, there was a lot of screaming and shouting involved. If you got whacked by that ball, you’d a) feel searing pain and b) know all about it.
2) Tip the can
Tip The Can was basically advanced Hide and Seek. One person was designated as ‘on’ and the rest of the gang had 60 seconds to disperse and hide as stealthily as possible. The aim of the game was to get back and ‘tip the can’ to free the rest of your fallen comrades without the person who was ‘on’ catching you. I was a tall child so was never very good at it. ‘Shauna, we can see you behind the car....’
3) Rounders
This was the ultimate childhood game. With jumpers as bases, a battered old tennis racket and a dog chewed tennis ball, Rounders was basically Irish baseball. Could you make it around for a home run? You’d certainly give it a good shot, throwing that tennis racket down and running for your life, sliding around in the grass. You’d spend an hour after the game trying to figure out how to get into the house with your Mam spotting that you’d ruined the new runners with grass stains.
4) Mother May I?
At the time, this game seemed totally logical, but, looking back, it was completely ridiculous and the winner was 100% chosen by the ‘Mother’. Basically, you asked ‘Mother’ if you could move two steps and it was up to them whether they granted your request. Madness. And completely biased. I wouldn’t stand by it now, I can tell you that much.
5) Wimbledon
Anyone else pretend they were in Wimbledon? I was always Steffi Graf because someone once told me I had a nose like her and I fancied Andre Agassi. I was terrible at tennis though.
