| Sjoel is played on a board - sjoelbak {"shool-back"} - about 2 metres long. At the far end are four alleys, guarded by four gates just a little wider than the circular playing pieces - sjoelschijven {"shool-schay-fer"} - 52mm diameter, and slightly concave (to skim better). There are 30 of these sjoelschijven, and the object of the game is to slide them one at a time under the bridge at the playing end to pass through the gates at the far end. |
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| Unless by great skill or good fortune the first piece will not enter one of the alleys but will bounce back a short distance depending on the force of the throw. As successive pieces are slid down the board they will nudge and jostle each other until some, by skill or chance, will enter the alleys. Once a piece has entered an alley it must not be touched by hand until the game is over and the final scoring takes place.
After all thirty pieces have been launched, the player must retrieve those which have not entered an alley ready for a second round. When those pieces have been launched, the player repeats the process a third and final time. |
| Because chance favours the outer alleys, these score 1 and 2 points, and the inner alleys score 3 and 4 points (ie 2:3:4:1). To encourage skill in distributing the pieces evenly across the board, each complete row (2+3+4+1) scores double points (ie 20 points). Attention to this rule is vital to achieving high scores.
The playing characteristics of different boards vary greatly - the friction of the surface obviously, but particularly the 'bounciness' of the wood from which the gates are made. On most boards the highest achievable score is 147 (as in snooker). Scores over 130 are excellent, over 100 good, over 70 fair. Scores under 40 are remarkable by virtue of the fact that pieces launched indiscriminately without aiming usually score around 40-50 anyway! |
