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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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