Ollies, Bollies and Steeleys.
As the old song goes, 'remember the days of the old school yard', and in between
your nervous breakdowns and alcohol and other induced hangovers, messy divorce(s) and
work related stress or dodging the dole, plod and the taxman, you may well remember
those days. And if you're getting on a bit, you might recall playing 'ollies'. Girls
generally ignored the dedication that lads seemed to put into this pursuit
or game or hobby. Girls instead seemed to dedicate themselves to the
pursuit of throwing two balls against the wall whilst chanting various rhymes.
A load of bowls
You may be really old and have replaced playing ollies with the more
'grown up' proper 'sport' of playing bowls. But its just big ollies
in a way, played by big kids, kidding themselves there 'mature'. The ones who
run along after there bowl remind me of us kids eagerly keeping an eye on the ollie
to see if it may have just slightly touched the ollie we were aiming at. Thanks to
Knowsley Council the bowling green in Webster Park is long since closed down. The
Councillors up here talk bowls, or something similar. But lets steer away from
politics whilst we look back to more innocent days when politics never mattered,
but ollies did!
One'ers and two'ers
Ollies were, and are, small glass balls with bits of coloured plastic in them.
Your 'ollie' was designated its 'worth' or 'value' by counting the amount
of colours in the ollie. Some had just one colour, up here in Kirkby that was called 'a oner',
if it had two colours 'a twoer' and so on. The actual basic game consisted of
two opponents, one of whom would start off by throwing there ollie some distance away.
The other player then tried to hit that ollie with his own ollie. Both of you will have
agreed beforehand as to the worth of your ollies. Inspections would be made beforehand
and ollies held up with little eyes squinting at them to determine the actual
numbers of colours.
Some cheating meff
If you hit the ollie, and it was more than a mere 'oner' then you'd throw your
ollie again, some distance, so they could attempt to hit yours. When you had hit
the opposing ollie enough times, you then owned that ollie. You slipped it into
your pocket with a smirk. Not even bullies seemed to deny the winner this right,
people got pretty possessive of the ollies and many a schoolyard scrap commenced
when various cheating little 'meffs*' (*slang for a 'tramp' or drinker of metholated
spirits) tried to deny you'd hit there ollie and so on.
Cats Eyes
Some ollies were clear, these were more prized although they had no
colours apart from the colour of the glass. In fact if you look at the cats
eyes on the Country lanes around Kirkby, you'll see the source of some of
these 'ollies'. The 'cats eye' was a round ball, therefore an 'ollie' to us
kids. These balls or cats eyes reflected the lights of headlights and gave
the driver an idea of were the Country lane was going, this was before the
roads were properly lit by lighting. The 'cats eyes' ollies were a kind
of a cloudy glass, not sure what it worth on the old point scoring system,
but if you'd risked your life yanking the thing out of the middle of a
Country lane, maybe it was more than a 'oner'. The person who made
these cats eyes, later became a millionaire as the UK's roads relied
on 'cats eyes' to give drivers an idea of were they were going. Maybe
replacing the cats eyes due to 1,000,000 odd ollie players made that
bloke earn his fortune a few times over. As traffic increased, the
odds of being hit by a car before getting a cats eye prised out,
seemed to dampen our enthusiasm. Street lighting was eventually
put up on these small and quiet 'country' roads that once surrounded Kirkby.
Bollies
As well as the small 'ollies', we also had bigger ones which were called
'bollies', maybe because they were bigger and us kids merely slipped the 'b'
onto the start of 'ollies'. Big Ollies =Bollies. Either way, the 'bollies'
were the same as ollies in as much as both were valued as to the number of
different colours. The bollie with three colours would be called a 'three'er'
etc. The bollie was worth more than a mere ollie and would be scored higher
if played against a mere ollie.
Steelies
After bollies, the next step up was the 'steely', which was a metal ball
at least as big as an ollie, but sometimes bigger. A lot bigger! In Spinney Woods
there used to be what the kids called the 'steely factory', some kids indeed possessed
big steeleys, some claimed to have gained there steely from the Spinney Woods factory.
These prized metal balls were, to us kids, the equivalent of a playstation 4, perhaps
more desirable, and at least it got your arse off the couch and outdoors or in the
garden at least.. Kids with steelies had a decided advantage when playing with
opponents using mere ollies or bollies. I'm not sure of the scoring system for
steeleys, sometimes kids could arrange an on the spot arrangement of points when
playing, depending on what you had to play with. Needless to say, if the bollie
versus steelie situation arose, the bollie owner would be praying that the steely
didn't smash the bollie. This public smashing of an opponent's bollie or ollie
was generally the aim of some of the more reckless players. You'd feel pretty
bad if your bollie was smashed and a crowd of braying kids laughed. The only
comfort was that the player who'd smashed the bollie had won a pile of smashed
glass. Blessed are the dickheads, for they shall inherit smashed glass.
Ollies itself was a basic game, but the skills developed were often remarkable.
Every school had the 'top' ollie player, the kid you'd always try to beat, even though
he had persistently taken your ollies, bollies or steelys. I can remember this kid still,
likely as not you can. For a while, before the onset of puberty, one of the main challenges
in life was to beat the top ollie player. Some of these kids had a practised flick of the
wrist and would throw ollies in weird ways. There were kids who'd whack your ollie
in one hit from 15 to 20 feet in a dive bomb, whilst looking at you. Even if they
missed, they'd always have there ollie roll away in an awkward position so that
you'd likely miss there ollie and mess up and leaves yours wide open for the kiss
of death. Some players would deliberately smash into your ollie, so much so that
it would chip slightly. Some kids would delight in taking ages to take a relatively
easy shot to hit another ollie, lining it up, looking at you with the grin of someone
who already knows there one ollie up. Then you'd hear that distinctive glass 'tap'
as the ollies made contact. Your ollie would be scooped up and pocketed. The
winner might further emphasise his victory by shaking the ollies around, to
let people know that he's got a pocket full and is looking for more victims.
Often these winners would shake the pocket full of ollies or bollies and
steeleys, tormenting the losers and trying to impress the girls, who
generally ignored this apparent 'great' victory and continued throwing
two balls against the wall.
Ollies in the circle
Sometimes us kids would chalk a circle on concrete, or maybe scrape one
on some earth and the participants in the game would each place an ollie in the circle.
From a distance of perhaps 10 to 15 foot away, the kids would, in turn, throw there ollie
at the ollies in the circle. If you knocked some ollies out - they were yours and you could
pocket them regardless of whether they were 'oners' or 'twoers' etc. If your ollie landed
in the circle. Tough luck. Your ollie was now waiting to be owned by someone else and you'd
have to use another ollie to participate and wait your turn. If your ollie landed
outside the circle, this was your next aiming point when your turn came around.
This game would sometimes have perhaps a dozen participants and the temptation
for even the poorest ollie player to take part was too much to resist.
Kids could get lucky in this game, but generally the top ollie players
would be have a few more ollies jingling in there full pockets, and the
fixed grin or leer of someone who can't stop winning.
Ollie theft did occur. I've never known anyone to be mugged of there
ollies, but obviously the odd ollie went AWOL and sleight of hand was
more the manner of robbing the ollies, and sleight of foot as we'll
learn. If your shoe had a hole in it, or treads big enough, it was
possible to join in a search for a missing ollie, or lurk near ongoing
games, then sneakily step on an ollie, securing it in the hole or tread
in your shoe, without being seen to have taken it.
I'm sure many will remember there own ollie playing days with fondness.
I remember mine with a sense of smugness. I've taken ollies off most everyone
in Northwood back in my Golden Years of the 70's. I took those ollies back then,
and by God I'd take them again.
The question you have to ask yourself is…….
Do you feel lucky?
Feel free to submit your memories of Kirkby.
Even if your have lost your marbles.
Yours, a former ollie Legend of Sacred heart playground. (circa 1970's) the
former legend Joe Rowan himself would confirm this claim.
Coming soon - long awaited memories of St Kevin's! The original
school for hardknocks. Anyone with there own memories are welcome to submit
articles. Bikesheds, KJ Masters, assemblies, the shadow puppet sex lesson
video, priests who would slap you (you needed it mate) and other great memories.
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