Test Match Game

Game found in The New Book of Games, circa 1950. Two boards are provided, one for the batting side and one for the bowling side.

Opening batsmen, before beginning play, are allotted a colour, either red or white. When a batsman is out, the next batsman in takes the colour just vacated. One counter is used for batting and one for bowling. These are placed on the squares marked “Start”.

To start play, the bowler throws the dice and moves his counter forward the number of spaces indicated by the throw. Should he fall on a red square, the “ball” is considered to be playable and the batsman is enabled to make a scoring stroke. He does this by throwing the dice and moving forward the number of squares on the batting chart thus indicated. The number of runs shown on the square is credited to the batsman on whose colour the counter is lying after the move is completed.

If the bowling counter falls on a wicket-taking square, the batsman who is out is the one whose coloured square is occupied by the batting counter. After taking a wicket the bowler bowls again before the batsman can make a stroke. Should the bowling counter fall on a square marked “extras”, these runs are credited to the batting side, but the batsmen make no stroke, and therefore the bowler must play again.

Batsmen cannot be out when lying on the square marked “Start”. It is a simple matter to work out the averages of all the different batsmen, and if bowling averages are also wanted, six throws of the dice would constitute an “over”.

Each of the two players controls a team of 11 batsmen, two of whom must always be batting at the same time. When 10 wickets have fallen the innings is considered closed, so that one batsman is left “ not out.”