Homas Family Sjoelbak

Also known as Dutch Shuffleboard, Sjoelen and Jakkolo, Sjoelbak is a game of Dutch origin and consists of each player being given three chances to slide the disks along the two metre (6.5 feet) table in an attempt to get them through 4 arches numbered 1 to 4 at the other end.  The twist that makes the game particularly engrossing, is that players have to aim at the low scores as well as the high ones because each set of 4 disks in 4 compartments scores double.....

The game comes into it's own at family get-togethers where it can be enjoyed by four year olds upwards but is also a game of great skill that is played competitively in Holland, Belgium and Germany.

Unfortunately this product is discontinued, please click here to see our full Sjoelbak Shuffleboard range.

Homas Family Dutch Shuffleboard

Homas is a traditional Dutch name in Sjoelbak manufacture.

Their family board is made from MDF and come with 30 standard disks. It is not as robust or nice looking as the Heemskerk tournament board but makes a good compromise for children or economy.

Boards measure 200 x 40 x 5cm (79 x 16 x 2 inches) and are simply pinned together. The boards are imported without the Homas branding so, although these promotional pictures show the Homas stickers, our boards do not have them.

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The Origins of Sjoelbak, Shuffleboard and Shove Ha'penny

The original English ancestor of most of the games involving shoving discs of some sort on a table was called Shovelboard.  Popular in Tudor times, Shovelboard was played by the English upper classes on enormous narrow tables as long as 30 feet (9 metres). Players shoved metal weights down the tables, attempting to get them as near to the other end of the table without falling off.    

By the 1800's Shovelboard had been abandoned by the aristocracy and nowadays, Shovelboard tables are confined to museums in England but three major derivatives still survive.  In Holland, the game of Sjoelbak came about sometime prior to 1900 and is still big in Holland, Belgium and Germany.  In America, Shuffleboard, became quite popular during the early 1900's in an outdoor format which still survives.   A smaller table version is now reasonably common in American bars and is very similar to the original Shovelboard.

In England, at a much earlier date during the 15th century, an indoor version of Shovelboard for play in taverns developed called Shove Groat.  The game evolved through Slide-thrift and Push-penny and eventually Shove Ha'penny came into existence around 1840.  It would originally have been played on any flat surface that could have the requisite lines inscribed on it but the official board these days should be made of slate or hardwood with indented lines defining the beds.  In all such games, players take turns to push coins up a board with horizontal lines across it.   The areas between each pair of horizontal lines are called a "beds" and the objective is to push the coins so that they land squarely in the beds without touching the horizontal lines.  To win, a player needs to get a coin in each bed 3 times which is no easy task for the beds furthest away from the front of the board. 

You can learn more about the History of Shovelboard, Sjoelbak and Shove Ha'penny from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.

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