Most
children understand the game of marbles the first time it is explained, but to
make it easier, these drawings show the most common plays.
To start a game of Ringer the children lag from a line, drawn
tangent to the ring, to a parallel line across the ring, which would be 10
feet away. The child whose shooter comes nearest the line has the first shot.
Players must lag before each game. Practice lagging, as the first shot may
mean the winning of the game before your opponent gets a shot. In lagging, a
child may toss his or her shooter to the other line, or he or she may knuckle
down and shoot it.
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This shows child behind who won the lag, preparing to knuckle
down. His knuckle has not quite reached the ground, which is necessary before
shooting. He can take any position about the ring he chooses. (The process of
picking the best possible position for starting is referred to as "taking
rounders.") The 13 marbles in the ring are arranged as in tournament
play. For casual games, a one foot ring is drawn inside of the ten foot ring
and each player puts in some 5/8" marbles, so that there is about a
dozen marbles in the smaller ring.
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Child above will try to knocks a marble from the ring on his first shot
and his shooter stays in the ring. He picks up the marble. As he has knocked
one from the ring, he is entitled to another try. Players are not permitted
to walk inside the ring unless their shooter comes to a stop inside the ring.
Penalty is a fine of one marble.
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Then the game will go and on and on till there were no more marble left inside of the circle.