Hobbies And Interests
Technique
The children need to draw a ring on the ground; they can do this by drawing with a piece of chalk on concrete or in a non-grassy section of the ground by drawing a circle in the dirt with a stick. The ring can be from 3 feet to 10 feet in diameter depending on the skill of the children. The larger the ring, the more proficient the players are.
Each player begins by lagging his own shooter marble to see who goes first. He can do this by tossing it in the ring, or knuckling down and shooting it according to Streetplay.com. The object is to see which child can get his shooter marble farthest in the ring without going over the ring line. Each player gets a turn, the one with the shooter marble closest to the line begins first, and then he takes turns by the next farthest marble and so on.
Line the rest of the marbles into an X shape in the center of the circle. Player one knuckles down and shoots his marble at the X shape. His mission is to shoot hard enough to knock other marbles out of the circle, yet at the same time keeping his shooter marble within the circle. If he misses or does not hit any other marbles outside the ring, he must let the next player shoot. If he does knock a marble outside the ring, he can continue to shoot until his shooter marble goes outside the ring, he misses or he gets all the marbles outside of the ring. You can see why it is so important to be the first player. Once his shooter marble leaves the ring, he collects all his outside marbles and puts them in a pile of his own. He should leave the shooter marble exactly where it landed outside the circle.
Player two gets a turn now that player one is out and he gets to continue playing until his own shooter marble leaves the ring, he misses, or he hits a marble but is unable to get it outside the ring. Once player one has played his shooter marble and none of the others marbles go outside the ring, he loses his turn. At this time, player two could aim for the group of marbles or aim at player one's shooter marble, thus knocking it farther outside the ring so that it will be harder for him to win marbles. This play continues with each child having a turn until all the marbles have been shot outside the ring.
Tournaments
Tournaments are played the same way as the Ringer game for children, except the circle must be 10 feet in diameter and 13 marbles are used to form an X or cross in the middle of the circle. Two to up to six players can be in tournaments, but national championships can only have two players. One point is scored for each marble knocked out of the ring, and one point is scored each time a player hits another player's shooter marble without knocking it outside the ring.