Deck Shuffleboard

05/20/12

Also known as Peel Billiards and Deck Billiards.
Equipment

A Deck Shuffleboard court typically consists of two oval scoring areas separated by a distance of 30 feet. Within each oval the middle portion is in the form of a square divided into 9 sub-squares which score from left to right 8, 1, 6, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 2. Notice that each diagonal or orthogonal row of 3 numbers adds up to 15 - it's a magic square. The top and the bottom edges of the square form the straight sides of two adjacent semi-circles stuck onto the top and bottom of the square to form the oval shape. The far semi-circle typically scores 10 points, while the near one typically scores -10 points (i.e. penalty points). Each oval scoring area is 6 foot from front to back. A further foot behind the far apex of each oval is the Gentleman's line. 2 feet in front of the near apex of each oval is the Ladies line.

The game is played with eight wooden disks, around 6 inches in diameter which are pushed along the deck with long cues by the standing players. Each cue is a stick with a "shoe" at the far end. The shoe is a rectangular piece of wood with a semicircle cut into the far side so that it fits snugly around a disk. 4 disks are marked with one colour, the other four with a different colour.
Play

Players toss a coin to decide who starts first (note - it is advantageous to play second) and then slide disks alternately towards the target area from behind the Gentleman's line. It is legitimate and often desirable to cause disks to knock into each other thus changing the position of one's own disks for the better or opponents disks for the worse. Any disk which does not reach the Ladies line is immediately removed from play.

Once all disks have been pushed, any disks that are completely within a scoring area and not touching a line, score the value indicated. Players then start a new "end" by playing from behind the Gentleman's line at the opposite end towards the other target area.

The first player to the winning total, which is usually 50 or 100 points, wins.

The game lends itself to doubles with each partner playing from the same end throughout the entire game.

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