by Barrie Jones
The autumn season with night’s drawing in reminds me of the childhood games of the 1950s and 1960s. After tea our play outdoors in late September and October would often over run into the dark hours before our parents would call us in for bed. One of the games that suited the need to stay active and warm on dry reasonably mild nights was ‘Strong Horses, Weak Donkeys’, also known as ‘Tal-y-Bimp’. Not altogether rough play for us older boys but certainly one that would not be allowed in today’s health and safety culture.
Two sides were chosen with about four to six in each, once chosen one side would ‘go down’; one boy, usually the smallest , stood with his back to a wall or post, to act as the cushion for the ’horse’. Then the other boys ‘scrummed’ down in a line , the first boy placing his head in the stomach of the standing boy and holding tight to the boy’s middle. The others, in turn, then placed their heads under the next boy’s legs grasping firmly around the boy’s thighs.
So the ‘horse’ was formed and was ready to be mounted by the other team. In turn, each boy would leap-frog upon the back of the ‘horse’ with the purpose of trying to make the it collapse to the ground. The best jumpers went first so that they leaped as far up the line of the ‘horse’ to make room for the other jumpers. It helped if they could manage to leap upon each other, as this added weight upon the back of just one boy. When all the boys had jumped, and the ‘horse’ hadn’t collapsed already, then they chanted “strong horses, weak donkeys, one, two, three, four, five”, If the ‘horse’ stood strong without collapsing they were the winners of that round; if they collapsed then they were weak donkeys and lost that round. If, any of the jumpers slid off the ‘horse’ and touched the ground before the chant was completed then their team lost that round also.
Picking sides needed a measure of fairness so that the smaller, weaker, heavier or more agile boys were evenly distributed between the two sides. The game could be both noisy and boisterous, with the occasional bruising and torn clothing but they were always enjoyable events. In our street the lamppost outside number 33, Wheatley Place, Keir Hardie Estate, was the ideal spot: well lit, and on a level stretch of roadway, and with no houses on the opposite of the side of the street a long run up for the leap on to the horse was possible.
There were numerous variants of the game which can be traced as far back as the sixteenth century, called ‘Buck, Buck’; it was played in Europe and the near East. The game appears in the bottom right hand corner of the painting ‘Children’s Games’, (1560), by Pieter Bruegel (The Elder) right.
In Britain the game was particularly popular in the 1930s and 1940s, continuing into the 1970s, and has now probably disappeared from our modern playgrounds and streets. In Wales it had numerous names, for example: ‘Strong Horses, Weak Donkeys’ in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, ‘Tal-y-Bimp’ in welsh speaking areas, and ‘Stagger Loney’ in Cardiff. While, across the regions of England and Scotland it had the interesting names of ‘Leap Frog’, ‘Mountie Kitty’, ‘High Jimmy Knacker’, ‘Hi Cockalorum’, ‘High Bobbery’, ‘Mobstick’, ‘Mount-a-Cuddy’, ‘Rigamajee’, and’ Pomerino’, to mention just a few.
Needless to say there were other ‘night’ games that we played, such as the hide and chase game ‘fox and hounds’ and the daring commando game of sneaking through our neighbours’ gardens without being seen. These are memories of nights that were always mild and dry and where time seemed to stand still until our mothers’ call to come home for bed.