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Hole Marbles Games

From the The Great American Marble Book on hole games:

Nucks

There seem to be no two-hole marbles games, but there are a few three-holers. One of these, an Australian game, calls for three saucer-shaped and -sized holes, each a yard apart. Players begin from a shooting line about ten feet away from the first hole, and shoot for the first, second and then third. A player can keep shooting as long as he's landing his marble in the saucers. When he misses, the next player gets his turn. The second has the option of shooting for a saucer or "kissing" his opponent off the track, for which he wins an extra shot. The first player to traverse the three holes three times is the winner.

Sir Joseph Verco in Early Memories wrote, "It had to be played necessarily kneeling down, and not otherwise, and so tended to produce a definite bagging of the trousers at the knees, and the wearing of holes there, as well as an accumulation of dirt and even of abrasion at the knuckles of the hands."

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Spanning

This is a Long Island version of Nucks. In it, the holes are shaped like pots instead of saucers. As with Nucks, a player has the option of either shooting for a pot or shooting at an opponent's marble. If he hits the latter, he receives an extra shot. Once in a hole, a player can span out from its lip (by stretching his hand from thumb to forefinger) and shoot from there. The first player through the three holes can shoot at his opponent's with the power to eliminate those he hits. A player who is eliminated has to pay a stake of marbles -- usually five or six, or a number agreed upon before the game.

The shooting line in this game -- from which all players start -- is at least 20 feet from the first hole, a sizable distance that makes this difficult game more difficult. Instead of a yard between the saucers, as in the Australian version, there are 10 feet. For good shooters.

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Song: "Duck Tales"