Skittles

Skittles or Nine Pins has long been played in the Inns of England. In general, players take turns to throw wooden balls down a lane at the end of which are several wooden skittles in an attempt to knock them all over. There are a number of skittle games across England and there have been many more in the past. In Germany, in the 3rd or 4th century monks played a game with a kegel, which was a club, carried for self-defense. In the game, the kegel represented a sin or temptation and the monks would throw stones at it until they knocked it over.
There are two 14th century manuscripts which show a game called club Kayles and which depict a skittles game in which one skittle is bigger, differently shaped, and in most cases positioned so as to be the most difficult to knock over. The throwers, in the pictures, are about to launch a long club-like object at the skittles underarm. The large skittle is presumably a king pin as featured in some of the modern versions of skittles. The fact that the thrower is not using a ball is not at all unusual - the Skittles cousins, Aunt Sally, and various games played on a court in Northern Europe still uses a baton shaped stick to chuck at the doll and many modern skittles games throw a object called a "cheese" instead of a ball. A cheese is any "lump" which is used to throw at the skittles and shapes can vary from barrel shaped to cheese shaped. There is no doubt that Skittles has been one of the most popular sports in England since at least medieval times. Many old pictures and books mention it. A study of old pictures of the Thames Frost fairs shows that Nine Pins was consistently one of the entertainments.