Disc world

Taking a stroll down London’s über-hip Brick Lane today (venue, somewhat incongruously, for a Leo Messi adidas corporate signing gig last week), I was transported back to my youth, as amongst the array of delicious smelling fast-food stalls and kitsch bagatelles, I spotted a posse of passive sportifs hunched over some gaming boards – Dominoes? Craps? No, none other than carrom, the sub-continent’s answer to billiards.

This most addictive of two-player games is contested on a square board of lacquered plywood with pockets at each corner. A striking disc, which can be placed anywhere along a baseline on one side of the board, is flicked with the finger to cannon smaller white and black pucks into the pockets; the one who pockets all his men first is the winner. At the start, the pucks are packed together in a complex formation in the centre of the board, the equivalent of the snooker triangle, which the first player breaks. A neutral red puck, the queen, can be pocketed to accrue bonus points at the end of the game, if it is followed by a man of your colour into the same pocket.

 
Shootin' discs: First date?

I spent many a happy hour (sans alcool) over the carrom board, the habitual opponent being my younger sister, who I took great delight in beating – a time-honoured ego booster for the cowardly male; defeat was, of course, always benevolence on my part.