When I was 8 we were living on the top of a reasonably sized hill, and I had a broken leg. Spent the whole summer flying stunt kites and learning tricks.

Do people still fly kites?

Used to play something similar in college - chase the penny. Many a drunken afternoon spent in playing this

British bulldog - classic! My son still plays it now

The big ship sails through the alley alley oh

Clapping

Conkers

Farmer's in his Den

Oranges and lemons

Our primary school playground was still split into one walled area for boys, where they played footie, and a tiny path and toilet block for the girls- literally the side alleyway. There were twice as many girls as boys. We had to content ourselves with elastics (which we called French Skipping) or roleplaying games which didn't involve movement- nurses, schoolteachers, card games etc... Really unfair.

I flew stunt kites a lot too, around aged 10. Do you remember the Peter Powell Stunt Kites?

We used to play it at the Pig & Whistle in Cape Town. Especially the happy 5 hours from 3pm to 8pm (buy one drink, get another free), on Wednesdays, frequented mostly by uni students. ....Many a hopelessly drunk afternoon spent there. +

Murder ball and Poison ball.... Murder ball was a cricket ball chucked around very hard at each other. Poison ball was even worse. Primary school Catford SE6.... late 60's

Guess what the Poison ball got rolled through first and it was kicked rather than thrown.. Ahh twas fun growing up in a Millwall stronghold.

Deadarm redemption. Rules - Make a subtle o sign with your thumb and first finger while your standing about. If someone could get their finger in and out without getting caught you got to give them a deadarm. If they caught you finger you got to give you a deadarm. If you caught someone looking at the osign they got a deadrarm! You had to standstill and have your arm punched without flinching if you lost. The teachers banned it because of the amount of upperarm serious bruising!

Then there was chickenscratch...that was brutal...

I think it was one I was flying - smashed my foot at the start of the summer holidays and, to prevent movement, they gave me a cast to the top of my leg so the kite was to give me something to do.

By the end of the Summer, not only could I fly the kite, I'd learned to ride a bike wearing the cast and with one good leg - and broke the cast trying to run on it for cricket (the crutches made excellent wickets lent against a wall)

Being beaten.

Those were the days..didn't do me any harm etc etc...

I remember being an old hand at kiss-chase, back in the early years..

Back then, wasn't it the girls that did the chasing and the boys who scarpered?

Come to think of it, they did chase, but I might have, ahem, exposed myself afterwards.

Postmans Knock

I remember doing that.My mother had a twin pram for bringing us to school in and then one day she went to get it and we had turned it in to a bogie cart.We went to school in that instead.

Can't really remember the name, but the basic rules were -

• Unlucky individual chosen to stand against a wall, with blazer held in front for protection
• Others threw tennis ball very hard with the intent of injurious impact on said individual, although I think the idea was just to hit the wall
• If he caught the ball with his blazer, he could then throw it far away and the next kid had to retrieve it and throw it against the wall
• If he missed the wall (often from a long distance), he was put on the wall too - over time there were more boys than wall to hit
• The winner was either the last boy not on the wall, or the one on the wall with the least injuries

The daft thing was that it was allowed by the teachers and enjoyed by all!!! - Fond memories, but the blazers only had a limited life which parents were not too happy about.

TD

British Bulldog - got banned after a girl split her head open.
Conkers - seasonal
Rounders
Red Letter
Knock Out - a group of kids running a certain distance and the last person is knocked out... Keeps going till you have one winner
Foxes and Hounds
Building go carts
Potato gun fights
Dub Dub Bin - essentially hide and seek but base was a bin!


And lots more that I can't remember!!