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Cock & Bull in the UAE?
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Notes from this Cock & Bull Club on the other side of the world...
Hi Fred,
I’m writing to tell you that the inaugural full game of Cock and Bull in the UAE was played at the 19th Street Bar & Restaurant at the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club at the start of the weekend on Thursday evening, Sept 25th, 2014 (unless someone I don’t know has beaten us to it). Though Black dominated the field early on, after a solid turn in fortune Red handily won the game by pegging it in.
A few excited cries of “Cock and Bull!” may have reached the ears of fellow diners and drinkers – many of them British expats who will have been totally oblivious to the historic significance of this event, as well as to the homage being paid to two grand old English pubs, and likewise to the general comment being voiced as to the veracity of much of what was being expressed by all and sundry that evening.
The Abu Dhabi Golf City Club (and Equestrian Club) is a green belt in the heart of the city with a dining/drinking establishment with good brew on tap, open to non-members and members alike and hence functioning as one of the only non-hotel-linked “locals” for expats in town.
My two chums who played the above-mentioned game there under my tutelage agree that this is the sort of game that can easily be played through various stages of inebriation while providing a total break from the general office-related cock and bull of many weekend get-togethers. All three of us look forward to many more hours at the ADCGC on weekends to come, indulging in this inspired pastime.
Cheers! - Keith
Hi Fred,
I’m writing to tell you that the inaugural full game of Cock and Bull in the UAE was played at the 19th Street Bar & Restaurant at the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club at the start of the weekend on Thursday evening, Sept 25th, 2014 (unless someone I don’t know has beaten us to it). Though Black dominated the field early on, after a solid turn in fortune Red handily won the game by pegging it in.
A few excited cries of “Cock and Bull!” may have reached the ears of fellow diners and drinkers – many of them British expats who will have been totally oblivious to the historic significance of this event, as well as to the homage being paid to two grand old English pubs, and likewise to the general comment being voiced as to the veracity of much of what was being expressed by all and sundry that evening.
The Abu Dhabi Golf City Club (and Equestrian Club) is a green belt in the heart of the city with a dining/drinking establishment with good brew on tap, open to non-members and members alike and hence functioning as one of the only non-hotel-linked “locals” for expats in town.
My two chums who played the above-mentioned game there under my tutelage agree that this is the sort of game that can easily be played through various stages of inebriation while providing a total break from the general office-related cock and bull of many weekend get-togethers. All three of us look forward to many more hours at the ADCGC on weekends to come, indulging in this inspired pastime.
Cheers! - Keith
October 17, 2014
See the attached photos, of varying quality, of the 2nd and 3rd games of the inaugural Middle East Cock & Bull series, played last night. Besides the action on and around the board, these snaps show the scene on the very spacious covered patio of the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, with views out toward the lit-up golf course and in towards the club restaurant/pub.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in the second shot, as the dice are on the table. BTW, we strongly really recommend against playing any dice game on a picnic table, as it calls for careful rolling and a tough call when one of die comes to rest at an angle in a groove. My Canadian chum Martin was the lucky winner of both of these games. His attempt to wedge the C & B dice into his eye sockets long enough for me to capture it was just less than successful, but at least I had the flash up by then!
My other chum, a Brit called Alex, who won the inaugural game two weeks ago, had Daddy-duty last night, but he'll be sure to join us next chance he can get. I really needed this end of the week release, I can see this becoming a welcome new regular tradition.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in the second shot, as the dice are on the table. BTW, we strongly really recommend against playing any dice game on a picnic table, as it calls for careful rolling and a tough call when one of die comes to rest at an angle in a groove. My Canadian chum Martin was the lucky winner of both of these games. His attempt to wedge the C & B dice into his eye sockets long enough for me to capture it was just less than successful, but at least I had the flash up by then!
My other chum, a Brit called Alex, who won the inaugural game two weeks ago, had Daddy-duty last night, but he'll be sure to join us next chance he can get. I really needed this end of the week release, I can see this becoming a welcome new regular tradition.
October 30, 2014
Photos of the three founding members of the Abu Dhabi Cock & Bull Club, meeting at the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club—the “ADCGC ADCBC”—from the third night of play in this inaugural season, on Halloween Eve, 30th Oct, 2014.
October 31, 2014
I definitely plan to introduce Jay Z and a couple of other friends to Cock & Bull. Speaking of which, Alex, Martin and I converged on the ADCGC again last night for an overwhelmingly welcome tension-relieving bout of brews and C&B. And the night was mine – with two games won – my first wins ever! The stats for our embryonic C&B club so far: Alex: 1W (the Arab World’s 1st) & 2L; Martin: 3W & 2L; Keith: 2W & 2L (Martin is the club stats-keeper and could rattle off the percentages for each of us if you asked him).
Oh, BTW, last night we devised a set of auxiliary C&B rules for picnic table play, to wit:
When a die lands in a table slat groove, the opposing player roles the die again, and if that one lands in a groove, then the player who’s up rolls again. Of course, an alternate solution might be to request a placemat or even a tablecloth from the establishment as a rolling surface. Moving back to the dining tables inside is just not an option now, with the fine evening temperatures coming on. Actually, we temporarily toyed with another solution by dispensing with the chips altogether and going for broke pegging it, as it seemed to us novices that chips got removed shortly after being placed in most cases, so why bother? This then freed up the board itself as a rolling surface. However, the one-dimensionality of that sort of play quickly wore thin, and then we re-read the rules and realized we couldn’t do that anyway, since when you roll a double of any animal you HAVE to place your chips on the board (or flip your opponent’s) and only when all the spaces associated with that animal have your own color on them can you peg it on a double roll.
Getting on with normal C&B game play then, we learned to appreciate the quirky outcomes afforded by rolls of the dice in this game and to exploit the strategic decisions offered by the C&B roll itself.
But back to the night of the picnic table play, once we got back in “the groove”, we suddenly had a double cliff-edged cliff-hanger at the end of the second game, with wins either by peg or chip hinging on a double-monkey, which came tantalizingly close to appearing, but was spoiled by a groove-tilted monkey, replaced by a cock in the opponent’s deciding roll. Interesting – the inconvenience of the picnic table grooves, offset by our new set of rules, now adds another exciting dimension to the game play!
I definitely plan to introduce Jay Z and a couple of other friends to Cock & Bull. Speaking of which, Alex, Martin and I converged on the ADCGC again last night for an overwhelmingly welcome tension-relieving bout of brews and C&B. And the night was mine – with two games won – my first wins ever! The stats for our embryonic C&B club so far: Alex: 1W (the Arab World’s 1st) & 2L; Martin: 3W & 2L; Keith: 2W & 2L (Martin is the club stats-keeper and could rattle off the percentages for each of us if you asked him).
Oh, BTW, last night we devised a set of auxiliary C&B rules for picnic table play, to wit:
When a die lands in a table slat groove, the opposing player roles the die again, and if that one lands in a groove, then the player who’s up rolls again. Of course, an alternate solution might be to request a placemat or even a tablecloth from the establishment as a rolling surface. Moving back to the dining tables inside is just not an option now, with the fine evening temperatures coming on. Actually, we temporarily toyed with another solution by dispensing with the chips altogether and going for broke pegging it, as it seemed to us novices that chips got removed shortly after being placed in most cases, so why bother? This then freed up the board itself as a rolling surface. However, the one-dimensionality of that sort of play quickly wore thin, and then we re-read the rules and realized we couldn’t do that anyway, since when you roll a double of any animal you HAVE to place your chips on the board (or flip your opponent’s) and only when all the spaces associated with that animal have your own color on them can you peg it on a double roll.
Getting on with normal C&B game play then, we learned to appreciate the quirky outcomes afforded by rolls of the dice in this game and to exploit the strategic decisions offered by the C&B roll itself.
But back to the night of the picnic table play, once we got back in “the groove”, we suddenly had a double cliff-edged cliff-hanger at the end of the second game, with wins either by peg or chip hinging on a double-monkey, which came tantalizingly close to appearing, but was spoiled by a groove-tilted monkey, replaced by a cock in the opponent’s deciding roll. Interesting – the inconvenience of the picnic table grooves, offset by our new set of rules, now adds another exciting dimension to the game play!
April 17, 2015
Hi Fred,
Darn, I keep missing your tournaments!
But yesterday Martin, Alex and I got back in action at the ADCGC. Started out with M in a game where he was 3 points from the finish line and I was way behind, with his win looking like a 'done deal', and then he had two single monkey rolls and I rolled a double monkey, a double bull and a double cock and sealed up the board to snatch the win away from him - Yes!!! But then the next game he had his revenge when he was again three points from the end and with his chip on the Crown rolled a double monkey and slammed home his peg. Cue in video of chest-beating monkey antics and "Ooh! Ooh! Aah! Aah!" We haven't come close to running any sort of a tournament here (a tad tricky with only one game set in the country), and we haven't been keeping stats recently, but we're still having a ball with it, Bro.
Hi Fred,
Darn, I keep missing your tournaments!
But yesterday Martin, Alex and I got back in action at the ADCGC. Started out with M in a game where he was 3 points from the finish line and I was way behind, with his win looking like a 'done deal', and then he had two single monkey rolls and I rolled a double monkey, a double bull and a double cock and sealed up the board to snatch the win away from him - Yes!!! But then the next game he had his revenge when he was again three points from the end and with his chip on the Crown rolled a double monkey and slammed home his peg. Cue in video of chest-beating monkey antics and "Ooh! Ooh! Aah! Aah!" We haven't come close to running any sort of a tournament here (a tad tricky with only one game set in the country), and we haven't been keeping stats recently, but we're still having a ball with it, Bro.
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