Filling the beds in Shove Ha'penny, Games by Zaweba

Long before pub games came on screens, there was shove ha'penny: a smooth wooden board marked with brass lines and a handful of coins pushed up it with the heel of the hand. Games by Zaweba keeps that traditional name for its version on the Skill & sport shelf, and keeps the feel of the old game too.

A turn in Shove Ha'penny

Each turn you shove five coins up the board. When the turn ends, every coin lying cleanly inside a bed, the space between two brass lines, chalks a mark against that bed. A coin that is touching either brass line does not count.

To shove with the mouse, move left or right to line up, then press and pull back towards you and let go. On the keyboard, use Left and Right to line up, then hold Space for power and let go.

Filling the beds

There are nine beds. The aim is to fill all nine beds three times each, in as few turns as you can. Once a bed has its three marks, it is full, and a coin landing in a full bed is wasted.

This shapes your plan as the game goes on. Early on, almost any clean coin helps. Later, only the beds that still need marks are worth aiming at, and those may be the hardest ones to reach.

The board and the coins

No two shoves are quite the same. The board runs a little faster or slower from shot to shot. A shove that landed perfectly last time may run a little long or short this time.

Coins also interact. A coin you shove can knock another one on into the next bed, or off the board altogether. That works both ways. A gentle shove can nudge a coin sitting on a line into a clean position, while a hard one can knock a good coin out of its bed.

Shoving well

Take your time over the power. The board's changing speed means you need to watch where your first coin of a turn stops and adjust from there. The first coin is partly a test of the board.

Think about order. Coins already on the board can be used as stops for later coins, and a coin you shove gently into the back of another can push it up into a bed. Experienced players use this deliberately to reach the far beds.

Do not be put off by a bad turn. Some turns the board runs fast and coins slide past the beds, or a good coin gets knocked away. Over the whole game these things even out, and the number of turns you need is what counts.

Watch the lines. A coin that looks to be in a bed but is just touching a brass line will not chalk a mark, so aim for the middle of the bed rather than its edges.

Shove Ha'penny and the games around it

Shove Ha'penny sits with Pub Darts on the Skill & sport shelf of Games by Zaweba, two traditional pub games in one place. Like every traditional game in the collection, it keeps its traditional name. It shows your score and your best when it ends, and runs entirely offline. Press Esc to pause and F1 for the rules.