Thursday, December 16, 2021

Wheeling - A New and Exciting Game For Cyclists


 For twenty years or more I have known of 'Wheeling', a Victorian board game loosely based on a ride from London to the Anchor, at Ripley.  This ride was hugely popular in the late Victorian era, and the road from the Angel in Thames Ditton to the Anchor formed the basis for road time trials, still one of the cornerstones of Club cycling in this country.

Neil made this course part of his enjoyable run to our Christmas Lunch yesterday, and gave us a very good briefing at the roadside.  His invitation to the ride reminded me of 'Wheeling', and I took a quick look at the internet to see if I could find a copy.  I really didn't expect to, as it is very rare and all of my previous attempts to find one had failed. This time, quite out of the blue, I found one with an antiquarian game specialist in Chichester. Well well.

It arrived this morning, very carefully packed, and it is a very nice copy indeed.  It is, I'm pretty sure, a first edition from 1896.  It has obviously had a bit of use, but it's sound and almost complete - one of the rider pieces is missing, there are three and there should be four.  That's not a great thing, as you can easily use a button or a Monopoly piece instead, and of course finding an example of the missing piece is another little quest for me.  An interesting side-light is that all of the pieces are ladies; in copies of which I have read they have been two ladies and two gentlemen.  But it does seem that the game reflects the cycling mores of the time, which were as egalitarian as they are today.








The game is quite complicated, and I imagine it would be fun to play.  As I said, the set is perfectly useable, so perhaps one wet Wednesday we could have a 'Wheeling' session, rather than a ride.

The Anchor at Ripley might be a good place to hold it ...


Mark

















4 comments:

Brian Bent said...

It's not impossible to make a copy of rider useing plastercine . I would like to give it a go sometime Mark .

Mark G said...

Yes please, Brian, that's very kind. I'll bring you one of the riders in the New Year.

Dave Vine said...

Fascinating tale Mark. It's worth mentioning that a picture of the board game features on the Anchor website.

Just a pity that the style of food now served there would not be conducive to a speedy ride home.

Brian Bent said...

Yes I spotted that. , it features gentlemen riders !!