How to Play Ringer Marbles

Setting Up the Game

• 1

  Make a circle 10 feet in diameter on a smooth level of ground or other hard surface with chalk or make a circle in the dirt or hard clay ground with your finger or with a stick. This circle is called the "Ring Line."

• 2

  Mark two lines in the center of the ring in the form of a cross or "X" so that the lines form right angles. This will be a guide for placing the marbles in play.

• 3

  Put one marble in the very center of the "X" and three marbles on each of the four lines of the "X." Place the marbles three inches away from each other.

• 4

  Draw a "Lag Line" which is a straight line that is in front of and tangent to the ring, touching it in the middle of the line.

• 5

  Draw a "Pitch Line" which is also a straight line tangent to the ring drawn directly opposite the ring and parallel to the Lag line.

• 6

  Obtain a shooter for each player that is made of anything except steel or metal. Ideally, it should be 1/2 inch in diameter or larger, but not more than 6/8 inch in diameter.

• 7

  Stand with your toe against the Pitch Line to throw your shooter or squat down with your knuckles on the line to shoot your shooter toward the Lag Line across the ring. This play is called "Lagging" and players must lag before each game. Shooter that comes closest to the Lag Line wins the lag and shoots first.

Playing the Game

• 8

  Take turns squatting down or "Knuckling Down" just outside the Ring Line to shoot your marble, trying to knock one or more marbles on the "X" out of the ring or to knock your opponent's shooter out of the ring. You can choose any area around the ring to shoot.

• 9

  Take a score of one for each marble you knock out of the ring. Take a score of one for each time you hit an opponent's shooter and it does not go out of the ring and take all your opponent's marbles, and their points, if you actually shoot their shooter outside of the ring.

• 10

  Pick up the marbles you've knocked out and continue shooting until you either knock your own shooter out of the ring or you fail to knock a marble or opponent's shooter out of the ring.

• 11

  Leave your shooter in the ring at the end of your turn. Pick up your shooter when it becomes your turn again, even if it is knocked out of the ring, and take your turn shooting.

• 12

  End the game when the last marble is shot out. Winner is player with the highest score at the end of the game.