Two local public houses held “traditional” if somewhat unusual contests on Saturday as part of the St George’s Day, London, Pub Festival.

The Jet, in Hayling Road, South Oxhey, held a dwyle flonking contest, in which Kelly’s Clodders beat Lordie’s Loafers by 14-12. It finished in a free-for-all, according to landlord Mr Dave Mills.

The darts was dominated by the Stocks family. Mr Bill Stocks won the men’s singles and his wife, Ivy, won the ladies’. The men’s cribbage was won by Andy Hassall.

The Grapevine, in Heysham Drive, South Oxhey, has a barrel tossing contest as their chief attraction. It was won by Garry Bunning with a throw of 30 feet.

In the tug-of-war, the darts team were too strong for the football team and won 2-1.

The darts triples tournament was won by Alan and Jackie Davey and Dave Lee. The men’s singles was won by Kevin Osborne and the ladies’ singles by Kim Walters.

[From the Watford Observer of April 29, 1977]

NOSTALGIA NOTE: According to the BBC, dwyle flonking (or dwile flunking, or a combination of the two) is a traditional pub game which gets its name from “flonk”, which means Old English Ale, and “dwile” – a knitted floor cloth. I won’t go into all the rules here because, frankly, they’re so daft you’d think I was making them up. To precis, though, the players split into two teams.

The team which is not flonking holds hands and dances around in a circle – known as “girting”. A member of the opposing team stands in the middle of the circle holding a “driveller” (stick) on the end of which is a beer-soaked dwile. The flonker then turns in an anti-clockwise direction and flonks his dwile at the opposing circling team.

So far so good. If the dwile misses completely, it is known as a “swadger”. When this happens the team forms a line and the flonker takes hold of a pot filled with ale. He then has to drink the contents of the pot before the wet dwile has passed from hand to hand along the line, chanting to the ancient ceremonial mantra of “pot pot pot”.

If it hits somebody, points are scored depending on where it hits.

To take part, authentic “yokel” costumes should be worn – pork pie hat, embroidered smock, trousers tied with binder twine at the knee and hobnail boots. And the prize? A pewter chamber pot.

It all sounds very daft but lots of fun, no doubt, on a balmy April afternoon.

Meanwhile one of the pubs mentioned in the article, The Jet, closed in 2008 having lost its licence a couple of years earlier.

After remaining empty for some time, it was finally demolished in 2011 and the land used for housing.