Quoits

Yesterday's story on the Therapeutic Value of Play included a photograph of kids and Quoits. Which leads me today to asking the eternal question.

Here's what I learned from a site called "The Quoit Pits:"

Quoits are similar to Horseshoes only in that they are both pitched from behind one pin placed in the ground, and toward a second pin some distance away. The major differences:

- Quoit pins are set very low, inside wooden boxes buried in the ground and filled with moist clay, rather than in the dirt or sand usually used with Horseshoes.
- Distance to the pin is almost halved: 21 feet for quoits in comparison to 40 feet for horseshoes.
- Quoits are doughnut-shaped rings made of brass, bronze, or steel, compared to an open, U-shaped horseshoe.
- To "ring" a quoit around the pin, you have to toss it onto the pin rather than sliding into it as you would a horseshoe.
- Since the surface you are throwing at is soft and tacky like putty, the quoits generally stick where they land. There is very little sliding, rolling, or bouncing, as is common when pitching Horseshoes.

Subtle, but clearly significant differences, don't you think? Demanding less strength, but more accuracy.

This article on "Quoits - History and Useful Information" cites Peter Brown, President of the National Quoits Association: "...the Greeks passed on Quoits, a weapon of war, to the Romans who also brought the game to Britain and that the origins may go back even further to the Minoan empire c.2000B.C. where the boy king of Knossos apparently used the discus/quoit to cull escaping slaves. Horseshoe pitching in this case came about as a poor-man's version of Quoits using left-over horseshoes instead of the real thing." Quoits, therefore, being the game of kinds, whilst horseshoes, which we, in our peasant-like ways, consider to be the "real" game, a mere poor man's version.

Regardless of the history, or even the distinctions between Quoits and Horseshoes, the fact that it is still played today is testimony to how powerful a good game can be - outlasting time and culture, race and language, nation and nationality.