The British and World Marbles Championship is a

marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. These toys can be used for a variety of games called marbles, as well being placed in marble runs or races, or created as a form of art. They are ofte ...

knock-out tournament that takes place annually on

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and dates back to 1588. It is held at the Greyhound public house in Tinsley Green,

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. Teams of six players participate to win the title and a silver trophy. The event is open to anyone of any age or nationality. Over the years, players from

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and the

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have participated alongside English teams. Both the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. However, the championship successfully returned on 15 April 2022, after a three year lay-off. The most recent event took place on World Marbles Day, Bank Holiday Good Friday, April 18, 2025, where the German teams were hoping to end a six year drought, not winning the tournament since 2019, and did so.

History

The tournament dates back to 1588 during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

, when marbles was chosen as the deciding game of a legendary sporting encounter between two young suitors, Giles and Hodge, over the hand of a Tinsley Green milk maiden named Joan. Every popular sport of the day was played in an Olympic style contest lasting one week. Hodge had been victorious at

singlestick Singlestick is a martial art that uses a wooden stick as its weapon. It began as a way of training soldiers in the use of backswords (such as the sabre or the cutlass). Canne de combat, a French form of stick fighting, is similar to singlestic ...

backsword A backsword is a type of sword characterised by having a single-edged blade and a hilt with a single-handed grip. It is so called because the triangular cross section gives a flat back edge opposite the cutting edge. Later examples often have a ...

quarter staff A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European polearm, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period. The term is generally accepted to refer to a s ...

, cudgel play,

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

and

cock throwing Cock throwing, also known as cock-shying or throwing at cocks, was a blood sport widely practised in England until the late 18th century. A rooster was tied to a post, and people took turns throwing weighted sticks called "coksteles" at the bird ...

, while Giles had won at

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

, cricket-a-wicket,

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( jousting targets), Turk's head,

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and

tipcat Tip-cat (also called cat, cat and dog, one-a-cat, pussy, or piggy) is a pastime which consists of tapping a short billet of wood, usually no more than , with a larger stick similar to a baseball bat or broom handle. The shorter piece is tapered o ...

. With the score level at 6–6, Good Friday was the date chosen for the final event. Marbles was chosen by the girl to be the deciding game, and Giles defeated Hodge. Marble tournaments have purportedly been played at Tinsley Green since the late 1500s, until the launching of the current event in 1932. Local historians have concluded that around that time, many individual county marble championships were amalgamated to create the British Marble Championships, which was only renamed as the British and World Marbles Championship for the first time in 1938.

Rules, marble "jargon" and tactics

The championships are organized by the British Marbles Board of Control (BMBC) and the version of marbles played is Ring Taw, known in the United States as "Ringer" and in Germany as "Englisches Ringspiel". Forty-nine target marbles are grouped closely together in 6-foot diameter (1.8-metre) raised concrete ring covered with sand, each of the target marbles being a coloured glass or ceramic sphere having a diameter of approximately 12mm (half an inch). Two teams of six players of any age, gender or skill level, take turns using the tip of the finger to aim and project the "tolley", a larger marble (commonly referred to as the "shooter" or "taw"), which is a glass or ceramic sphere of 18mm diameter (three-quarters of an inch), deploying top spin, back spin and side spin, to drive other marbles out of the ring. A player's knuckle must be touching the ground when shooting, known as "knuckling down". Moving the tolley closer to the target marbles, known as "cabbaging", is forbidden - as is any other advantageous movement of a players shooting hand during shooting. These would constitute a foul known as "fudging". Any intentional or persistent contact between a player's clothing and a marble or tolley while it is motion would be a foul called "blocking". No score results from a foul shot. A foul shot ends the turn of the offending player, though the score achieved in that turn stands. Any player who makes three foul shots during a game is eliminated from that game. The first team to knock out 25 marbles from the ring is the winner. Alison Reimer 2025

Historical timeline

*1588 – Giles defeated Hodge at marbles to claim the hand of a local young maiden of Tinsley Green. *1888 – Sam Spooner wins the title on the 300th year of the event (as British Pathé video 1938). *1932 – The Black Horse from Hookwood, were the first winners of the modern event. *1935 – 6-foot concrete ring used for the first time *1938 - British Marbles Championship renamed as the "British and World Marbles Championship". *1942–1945 – No tournaments took place due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. *March 1951 – The coldest recorded conditions for tournament, the Tinsley Green Tigers beat the Arundel Mullets in the final. *April 1953 - First ever international match at Tinsley Green, 'Governor Gobs' played a team of players from Sussex teams. *April 1962 – Glass marbles were used for the first time in place of older clay marbles. *March 1970 – Controversially the BMBC banned women from the main tournament because of the wearing of mini-skirts. *March 1972 – Teams of women played in the main event for the first time, the Prima Donnas from Crawley, and the Kernockers from London. *April 1973
Len Smith Interview for BBC Nationwide Sport - 12 April, 1973
He wins 12th individual title. *April 1974 - Heavy rain halts the tournament, which resumed 2 weeks later on Sunday 28 April. *March 1975 – Snow had to be swept from the ring in temperatures of −2 °C. The "Terribles" win a record 19th title. *April 1976 - In a separate international championship, USA defeated England (represented by the "Terribles"); USA were Ray Jarrel aged 17, Larry Kakos 16, Susan Regan 15, Rick Unser 15, Ray Morgano 19, and Jerry Magers 16. *April 1977 – The tournament was moved to the Crawley Leisure Centre for one single time. *April 1984 - Shortest final ever 2 minutes. Tony Jones 6, Paddy Graham 18, Taffy Holmes with the winner. *April 1987 – A Trophy was introduced for "the women's best individual player" and won by Jackie Hodge. *14 Sept 1987 - Black Dog boozers enter

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

for ring clearance (2 mins 56 seconds) for BBC's ''

Record Breakers ''Record Breakers'' was a British children's TV show, themed around world records and produced by the BBC. It was broadcast on BBC1 from 15 December 1972 to 21 December 2001. Format The programme was a spin-off series from '' Blue Peter'' wh ...

''. *1989 and 1991 – Highest number of teams ever entered, 28 teams of six totalling 168 players competing. *March 1992 – The Tenn Ky Sharpshooters are the first overseas team to win the trophy.'Note: Junior B. Strong won the 1992 World Marbles Championship in England' *March 1994 – Blue target marbles were used for the first and only time. *April 2000 – Team USA won the international Fen Cup with a team made up almost entirely of shooters under the age of 18. *April 2002 – Golden Oldies tournament added for competitors aged 50 over, first one won by Barry Ray. *April 2002 – Saxonia Globe Snippers become the first German team to win the tournament. *September 2008 - the Greyhound Pub closed, only re-opening shortly before the next tournament. *April 2010 – Jen McGowan (formerly Jen LeBon) wins a twelfth ladies individual title. *March 2013 – Crawley-based Black Dog Boozers win the tournament for a 13th time, just 6 off the record of 19 set in 1975. *March 2018 – The Johnson Jets set the record for being runners up 11 times. *2020 and 2021 – Events cancelled due to

. *July 2021 - Sad loss of Sam McCarthy-Fox, long time organiser of the event and ambassador of the game of marbles for over forty years. *15 April 2022 - The event returned to The Greyhound after three years, organised by Julia McCarthy-Fox. *7 April 2023 - The longest streak of different winning teams in history, with 5 different teams having won the last five tournaments. *18 April 2025 - Alison Reimer(Ray) sets the all time most wins: 13 in the individual ladies

Championship results (E = Teams Entered)

Roll of honour

Celebrity involvement

* 1937 –

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– Irish-born British musician, composer and comic entertainer and radio presenter * 1947 –

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...

– Comedy double act * 1948 – Jack Warner (actor) – English film and television actor (

Dixon of Dock Green ''Dixon of Dock Green'' is a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 1955 ...

) * 1964 –

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– Television presenter (

The Golden Shot ''The Golden Shot'' is a British television game show produced by ATV for ITV between 1 July 1967 and 13 April 1975, based on the German TV show '' Der goldene Schuß''. It is most commonly associated with host Bob Monkhouse, but three other ...

host) * 1974 –

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– TV news presenter (

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) * 1976 – Dave Allen – Irish comedian * 1980–2000s –

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– TV & Radio presenter (

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, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and

Host) * 1980–2000s – Tom Watt – Actor ( Lofty from

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) and Radio sports journalist * 2003 -

Chris Packham Christopher Gary Packham CBE (born 4 May 1961) is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series '' The Really Wild Show'' from 1986 t ...

- BBC TV presenter for '' Inside Out'' (and various TV nature programmes). It's England v Germany - but not as we know it! It's the World Marbles Championship 2003 - a contest which can easily reduce grown-ups to tears. Inside Out's Chris Packham flexes his fingers and finds out more * 2008 - Mayor of Crawley Councillor Sally Blake, unveiled a blue heritage plaque from Crawley Arts Council. * 2009 – Rory McGrath – Comedian and writer and captain on

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* 2009 –

Paddy McGuinness Patrick Joseph McGuinness (born 14 August 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of fellow comedian Peter Kay, who invited him to appear on the television comedy series '' That Peter ...

– Comedian and TV presenter of Take Me Out (UK game show) * 2009 – Crawley’s Mayor and Mayoress Councillor Dr Howard & Mrs Sue Bloom visited in the rain. * 2010 - Mayor of Crawley Councillor Brenda Burgess came along. * 2015 –

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German comedian on Germany winning the World Marbles Championship (at 2 mins 40 seconds)
* 2021 - Marbles was chosen as an event in the popular

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survival drama

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. * 2023 - Henry Smith - Mayor of, and MP for Crawley.

Other marble tournaments

National Marbles Tournament (United States)

References

External links

Greyhound Marbles Website archive by Sam McCarthy-Fox

External video links

Marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. These toys can be used for a variety of games called marbles, as well being placed in marble runs or races, or created as a form of art. They are ofte ...