Congratulations, you've discovered this 'hidden' page. The Penny Game Histories are, of course, fictitious. I invented the games over a period of 49 years.

Here's the time line:

Penny Black 1982
Penny Blue 2000
Penny Green 1983 - 2020
Penny Red 1994 - 2000
Penny White 2002

Roof Ball 1972 - 2002
Shoot 1990 - 2002
Spinmaster 1971 - 1999
Touchdown 1980 - 2002
Quarterback 1980 - 2018

Here's some photos of the first children to ever play Penny Black. The seventeenth of May 1982. At that time I lived at 37 Anton Drive in Sutton Coldfield.

As I was photographing the game, they came over to see what I was doing. I explained and asked them if they wanted to try the game out. They were very enthusiastic and stayed to play several games. I wonder if they still remember that day?

And here are the first prototypes for Roof Ball and Spinmaster. Notice the small bats and ball, and lack of the sky for Roof Ball. For Spinmaster notice the lack of a centre field, ditches, and swords; but the additional tennis court markings.

The final photograph is of the very first Penny Black board. In retrospect it was a mistake to go with a hexagonal board for reasons that I have explained on another page of this web site. The first pennies were painted with enamel and numbered.

Are you really obsessed?
No.

Really?
OK. Of course when I was inventing a game I was obsessed. But when it's done, it's done. I'm old now and the creative spark is fading. My best work is done.

You say your best work. What do you think is your best work? Your best game?
Oh I can't say. They all have their own merit. I'm too close to them.

Well which do enjoy playing the most? You do play them don't you?
It's a bit embarrassing really, but when I was younger there was nearly always one on the dining room table. I played more days than not. The most. Hmm. Do I have to?

Please.
OK. Spinmaster.

That surprises me. Why Spinmaster?
It's just perfect. And to see that little sponge ball curve through the air like a Beckham free kick, well, it just is.

And why is it so little played?
Because people are not prepared to spend time practising how to cut the sponge balls. If they could go into a shop and buy the game off the shelf then I'm certain that they'd love it too. But they aren't prepare to make one themselves, and I can't blame them. It is hard and you need the correct density of sponge to fit the fields. You know I can still remember when I thought of introducing the centre field and ditches. I was at the bottom of the stairs during the summer holidays August 1999. I stopped quite still, then went into the kitchen and announced to my wife that I'd just finished inventing my best game - twenty eight years after beginning..

And what did she say?
Oh I don't know. Probably something like - That's nice, dear, can you take the washing out of the tumble drier?

I take it that she doesn't share your passion?.
No. She's normal.

So what does she think about the dining table?
She thinks it's for dining. Disgraceful. No, she's very understanding. She puts up with me

I've looked at the web site, and the game that fascinates me is Touchdown, simply because it looks so complicated. It must have taken you a very long time to work it all out.
Yes it did. But in fact once the three step rule was introduced and the idea of using dice to introduce the element of luck then the rest was a logical exercise. It doesn't compare to Spinmaster at all. Spinmaster has raised fields rather than a court. There's the centre field of course, the sky, the ditches, the mini bats and burrs, the way the swords and shields are used ... it's the most inventive of my games. Definitely the best.

Now Penny Black is by far the most popular game. How did you get the idea for it? Is it just snooker with pennies?
No, no, no, no-ooo! Wash your mouth. It's nearer to the proper game of marbles, you know, the one where you have nineteen in a circle and you have to knock them out one by one using a big tolley that you flick off your forefinger using your thumb. No? Never heard of it? World Championships at Tinsley Green? The Toucan Terribles? Ah well. I used to cut a ring of closely clipped grass in my parents lawn and play against myself. I was sometimes embarrassed about what the neighbours were thinking of me.

You're blushing.
I know. Any way that's where it came from originally. I decided to use pennies on a coffee table instead of marbles in a ring and it just developed from there.

Have you ever tried to get any of your games commercially manufactured?
Yes. The history is thus. Penny Black was made by a company called Remploy for a very short while but the boards were not up to standard. Shoot, Touchdown, and Roof Ball in their early forms have all been rejected more times than I care to mention. I have not submitted any game in it's final form. I took the decision to make them public on the internet because the way I see it is this - I have a job and inventing the games was simply my hobby. I'd be quite happy for anyone else to manufacture them. None of them are patented and none of them can be now. But there again business people are out for gain and not being able to patent doesn't give them much incentive. Ah well.

So what do you hope will happen to your games ?
World domination, obviously. But failing that, just for a few of them to survive long after I'm dead and gone.

And what do you think those will be?
Black. Red. Green. Spinmaster. Roof Ball. In no particular order.

Crisps or chocolate?
Crisps

or Shower?
Bawer.

A wish.
Er ... A .... For, for ... Oh for there to be a Cool Is Kind Club in every school.

And finally, what would you like to be written on your grave stone?
1953 - 2099

You are very wierd.
Thankyou.