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Skully (game)


Skully (also called skelly, skellies, skelsy, skellzies, scully, skelzy, loadies, scummy top, tops or caps but widely known as Scummy) is a children's game played on the streets of New York City and other urban areas. Sketched on the street usually in chalk, a skully or skelly board allows a game for two to six players. A sidewalk is sometimes used, offering greater protection from vehicular traffic; however, the asphalt on a typical city street is smoother and provides better game play than a bumpy concrete sidewalk.

Game time varies, but a match of two to three players is usually completed in 20 minutes. Local variations in rules are common and make it difficult to document the game. Rule variations are agreed upon by players before starting a game, especially when players from different neighborhoods play against each other.

The skully field of play, or board, is a large square approximately six feet (2 m) a side. This board is drawn on a flat surface, such as the pavement of a street or playground.

At each corner and along the edges of the board are drawn 12 smaller squares, called boxes, of about six inches (15 cm) a side each (see diagram). These boxes are labeled "1" to "12" in a pattern so that the path from one square to the next requires—as much as possible—crossing through a large center square called the skull or skully (hence the name of the game). Boxes "1" and "2" are in opposite corners of the board, as are "3" and "4".

In the center of the skull, a 13th box is drawn at the same size as the other boxes and is labeled "13". The areas around the 13 box are marked with skulls or numbers, and describe a penalty area where players are not meant to shoot their game pieces, called caps.

A short distance from the "1" box is found a start line approximately six inches long.

The dimensions of the skully board can vary depending upon physical restrictions and neighborhood game play practices. Earlier versions of the board had only 9 boxes, and boards used in the similar games like deadbox (played mainly in Philadelphia) have upwards of 15 boxes.

Players use caps—usually bottle caps, or similar items like checkers, or chair glides—to play. Many players use clay, wax, a coin covered with tar that was dug from the streets and most commonly crayons that were melted into the bottle cap (these having been referred to as "melties") to weigh down their caps for easier gliding. Caps were typically plastic milk bottle caps with clay in the middle of the cap, other times candle wax is melted into them. Some players took extreme pride in customizing their designs. On hands and knees at the starting line, the first player flicks a cap poised between thumb and middle finger, and attempts to land it in the box labeled "1". If successful (the cap cannot touch a line), the player continues by flicking for the next number - and so on, in the sequence: "2", "3", "4" etc., up to "12". If any flick is unsuccessful, the player's turn is forfeit in favor of the next player. When all players have had their turn, the first player resumes by flicking for the square previously missed.


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Wikipedia

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