It began life as a drinking game with the loser buying a round…but the ‘sport’ of spoof is now big business. And this month players around the world are heading our way.
Because the National Spoofing Championship will be held in Tunbridge Wells in two weeks time with some participants coming as far as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as from across the UK, to take part.
The ultimate gentleman’s drinking game has been popular for decades, particularly in rugby union circles, with losers buying the round of drinks.
But it was adapted into a championship format with a point-scoring system as well as the usual drinking in the 1970s, and a national and world championship is now staged every year.
The national title was first awarded in 1973, with the world crown created 10 years later.
Guy Sankey is the reigning national champion after triumphing in Reading last year, so automatically won the right to host this year’s contest, which will be staged at Sankey’s pub in Mount Ephraim on Friday, November 20.
Sixty-four players from across the globe will be fighting it out for honours.
A large number of rooms have been booked at Hotel Du Vin for the contestants, with event organisers predicting “higher than normal” sales of Champagne during the spoofing weekend.
Spoof is a game of chance with each player having three coins. They choose how many coins to hold in a hand behind their back and put forward, with players then taking it turns to guess the total number of coins being held out.
If they believe zero coins are being held they shout “spoof”.
Players cannot guess the same number as others and or make calls they know are not possible. For example, if they hold two coins in their hand they cannot make a call less than two, as this would be a “bum call”.
Traditionally the loser buys a round of drinks for all the players, but for the championships points are awarded in order of the first out in each game.
Players are split into groups of six and play a set number of rounds with winners going through to face other victors, until a winner is crowned.
During this process the losers of each rounds still buy drinks as normal.
Tunbridge Wells has a rich history of spoofing, with John Pilcher, of Wood & Pilcher, being a previous national champion and John Pemble taking the world title before.
The current world champion is also British, with Max Cherrill from Cardiff winning the crown in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the summer British Lions tour.
Matthew Sankey, a director of Sankey’s of Royal Tunbridge Wells, who has helped organise the national championship taking place in a fortnight, said: “The championships have strong links to rugby and follow big games around.
“It is no coincidence that New Zealand are playing England at Twickenham the day after the national championship.
“The Tunbridge Wells winners have all been members of the old Tonbridge Rugby Club.”
He added: “The championship is not really a spectator event, as it involves lots of old men sitting around drinking, but it was a quick sell-out in terms of participants.
“It is something different and will be an entertaining Friday night for those taking part.”
POSTED: 08/11/2009 09:00:00
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