The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-03-12
THE GAME OF QUOITS.
CAN DC PLAYED ANY PLACE AND IS
SPLENDID EXERCISE.

time. and Its Beginnings Are Lost
In the Mist of ASeS-FIne Training
For the Eye and Arm.
There are some games which have
never had their boom, and quoits is one
of them. Still, as nothing happens but
the unexpected, it may be that the time
is nearly ripe for quoits to be taken out
of its undeserved obscurity, to be exalt-
ed to the status of a national game to
have weekly papers named after it and
to have columns in the sporting press
devoted to the doings of its champions.
Stranger things have happened. Who,
for instance. would have said when at
|. the end of the sixties few energetic
sportsmen went wobbling about ON bone
shaking bicycles which it would have
been far easier to push than to ride
that at the end of the century consider
ably more than 100, 600 bicycles would
be manufactured annually in Great
Britain alone and that a great part
of the population would adopt this
means of locomotiOn? One cannot i'm
agine that quoits will ever attain s1ch
popularity as the bicycle, but the un
prejudiced person can see no reason
why it should not become as favorite a
pastime as golf, which very few years
ago was almost unheard of south of the
Tweed
Quoits is a very fine game, especially
in the winter time. 1t is splendid exer-
else and trains the eye and the hand to
act together in a way that few other
sports can do, for the very essence of it
is accuracy of aim al mark placed be-
low the level of the hand. 1t has been
objected that throwing quoits makes
the player lopsided but. after all, that
is easily remedied. for there is nothing
to prevent the player throwing the
quot with his left hand if he so pleases,
and such a change would make varia-
ton in the game and also afford an ex
cellent method Of handicapping the men
of unequal skill. Quoits strengthens the
arms and shoulders. but it is not pas
time which primarily demands strength
A great advantage of the game is that
it can be played in any small space and
that the ground need not he particular
ly level. Any rough field or waste bit
of ground is good enough for quoits
pitch and no rolling or cutting is re-
quired TO satisfy the demands of the
most exigent For cricket you need a
carefully prepared wicket, for lawn
tennis and crOquet a piece of turf like
billiard table and for golf the best
part of country all to yourself but for
quoits you only need few yards of
roug Eround, and you have as good
place for throwing rs any one can pos
sibly require
People certainly might play quOits
more than they do. but the taking up
of game is usually Il matter of fancy,
and perhaps two things stand in the
way Of quoits First, there is an idea
that it is a rustic sport and can only
be played hy the rough country lads,
and, second, there is the legend that
the game is derived from the classical
discus throwing, suspicion which it
must be confessed Is enough to throw
slur on any well regulated game.
No treatise on quoits can begin with
ont the time honored pedigree of the
qu0it from the discus. Strut who lived
at the end of the last century. OF course
dealt with it, and equally of course he
dragged III the discus even if he did not
invent the descent of quoits from the
/ sports Cf ancient Greece. The thing, of
course is absurd. To make a discus,
the artisan did not. in the words of the
| immortal Irishman, take hole and put
| some iron around it. The discus was
more like llattened Dutch cheese and
was a solid missile Moreover, it was
not held in the same manner as quoit,
but was bowled underhand. in which
indeed it alone differs from putting the
weight. That quoits is now played
chiefly in the country is the fault of
those who do not play it and bring it
into fashion.
1t is no dOubt a very ancient English
game, and its beginnings are lost in the
mist of ages. Hakluyt mentions it in
his book of Voyages, so it was we'll
known in Queen Elizabeth time, when
it probably was one of the favOrite
sports of Merrie England. In some
parts of the country the rustics used to
employ horseshoes for want of properly
made quoits and there are districts in
which the quot is called ''shoe' even
to this day. This gives us the clew to
the most probable origin of the sport
and hints that the first game of quoits
was started by throwing old horseshoes
at the hob or mark, and from this grad
ually grew up the practice of having
quoits specially made for throwing So
much for the discus Legend. As for tho
word quot it,els. its ctymolo~y
more than do1bs ul. and il : YES us -.
clew whatever 70 tAe origin Of i'l-
game.
Shakespeare, who -ions evcrr-
+ thinE c-ce.. t5a-ee coc-sa has "a
j rc-e-enc, tae IL ---Fit5
was cal, ti7 lt nay b1
he-d tn s.. T -l-t t,. SPACIOUS tim a-s oi
Great LIZA i s.. fa- -.a.1r asrjod