YORKTON - It stands to reason that in the long winters on the Canadian Prairies someone would take a deck of cards at some point and create a game simulating our much-loved sport of hockey.
Do some searching and you can actually find a few card games with a hockey theme, but a game invented by Ida A. Spence is quite likely the first.
At www.pagat.com it is noted Spence invented the original version of the game – it is simply called Hockey -- in Eddystone, Man. during the hockey season 1961-62. In the mid 1960's many of the players moved to Winnipeg and introduced the game there.
That the game is still notable enough to have easily found rules is suggestive that there is something here in terms of game play as it is basically 65 years old now.
The game is for two players, using a 52-card deck, one representing each team, which seems rather an obvious likelihood.
The game has some hockey ‘lore’ woven into it.
The dealer deals five cards to each player. When the dealt cards have all been played, the same dealer deals the next five cards to each player, and this is repeated until just 12 cards remain, at which point there is a final deal of six cards each.
Playing once through the deck - four deals of five cards each and one of six cards each - is known as a ‘period’.
The sixth card in the final deal is considered as ‘an extra attacker’ for the ‘last minute remaining in the period’.
You play three periods, and overtime if tied.
From Pagat.com; “a turn consists of playing one card from your hand face up to the centre of the table. The cards played by both players are stacked in a single pile so that only the most recently played card is visible.
“If a card is played which matches the rank of the top card of the pile (for example an 8 is played on an 8), this creates a breakaway for the person who played the matching card. Also, any time that a Jack is played, this creates a breakaway for the player of the Jack.
“If a player who creates a breakaway then matches the next card played by the opponent, the player scores a goal.”
When Trevor and I took this game to the table one afternoon our expectations honestly were for a game that would lack goals and as a result be little fun, but that was not the case at all.
We didn’t score bushels, but enough that it was interesting, and there are variants that tweak things which you can try for goals, and you can create your own too – for example if a player drops a nine and the next player matches it could be an automatic goal – and hockey fans will know why.
This is super easy. It’s rather quick. It’s Canadian. It’s hockey. Add that all up and it’s really a game to add the rules to your cards binder.
