Don't Lose Your Marbles

Earlier yesterday afternoon I attended a summer fete in the village of White Ladies Aston. For geography nuts, it's a the small village situated 3-4 miles east of Worcester.

I will confess it's one of the best summer fetes I have ever visited, they have got so much going on. They have the usual things. Such as, white elephant stall, raffle, bottle tombola (more on that in a bit), children's tombola, book stall and cake/jam stall. However, they have got additional things such as splat the rat, mystery item, mystery bottle, play your cards right and target football. This fete has one special game in particular which I haven't seen anywhere else. It's called Don't Lose Your Marbles.

Given I have been to White Ladies Aston in previous years. Although I missed the event in 2012. They always
have this game. Given the concept it could be taken the rule books of The Cube but more likely from Minute to Win It. The game features a ceramic flower pot with a hole on it's base (see picture), many small marbles in a small plastic dish, medium sized wicker bowl and a tablespoon. The flower pot is placed upside down inside the bowl, so the hole is visible. The aim of the game is place as many marbles into the hole of the flower pot by transporting the marbles via the tablespoon within 30 seconds. However, you can only use one hand to move the marbles. Given the physics, it's very likely the marbles will slide off the base of the flower pot, since the base has a small surface area. Although you have to use one hand, you can use the spoon to knock in any marbles down the hole if they're resting on the base of the pot. The distance between the flower pot and the dish of marbles is only 5-7cm apart but you will need to lift the marbles from the dish into the flower pot as the dish holding the marbles are smaller in height. When the 30 seconds run out any marbles outside the flower pot will be excluded and any that landed inside will be counted towards your total. They had two leagues set up, one for children, the other adults. When I tried there was only one score registered with 58. After my go I managed to score only 56. I will confess I did play this game in 2011 but couldn't remember my previous score. Given the whole set up, I wonder if there is a perfect strategy? If you go slowly you could be more accurate but not many marbles will be deposited. If you quickly, it would be down to physics itself to see where the marbles would go.

I did enter the bottle tombola since they have a good selection on offer. When I entered in 2010 I managed to win a 70cl bottle of Barcardi. This time I paid for 9 tickets and given I have no luck at all. I ended up winning the following.

Happy Shopper vegetable oil (are Happy Shopper still around?),
Glitter berry J20,
Persil washing up liquid,
Small bottle of Smirnoff Ice Vodka.

My mother also had a go, she paid for 3 tickets. All she won was a bottle of Dr Pepper. Her first response, "I hate Dr. Pepper".