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aristomatic wrote: ↑Sat Apr 24, 2021 1:33 pm ...... I'd give my right arm to own one of these....

T'would make it trificult to play.

Good point BP. Still, it's only my right arm. It is not like I'm in my box in Boot Hill! Anyway, who said I wanted to play it? At that price, maybe I want to leave it as a display item, as someone may break it..! But, I doff my cap to ever eagle eyed BP.

Perhaps I should be more guarded with my posts from now on? However, there's every chance you'll catch me out again BP, so it's bye from me! I'm off out for a pint, a full one at that, then maybe a spot of gardening whilst sun shines.

Thanks Sweetmeats for the info, how on earth do you track this info, incredible.

I wonder what the flags do on the other machine, or are they just ornamental?

.... flutter in a breeze?

Further to treefrog's post, I had forgotten the flags. They seemed to be a later addition and did not move. I was at the sale in 2001 along with the great and the good of the collecting fraternity (and some not so good!) all hoping to buy it for around £10,000 hammer including me! Sold to a well known magician and slot collector from New York , who I subsequently found only heard about it the day before and thought he was bidding on a footballer! The Holloway picture was bought from a former collector together with his collection of postcards showing slot machines. There were about a hundred negatives showing machines as diverse as cast iron Matthewson to Bollands on site at Chessington zoo, counter top and wall machines never seen even today, dating to around 1900.

Just stunning.

Hello,
The photos of the Ye Olde Cricket Match brought back some happy memories playing on a similar machine at Raby Mere on the Wirral 60 plus years ago!

It looked ancient when we played it, due to style of clothing of the cricketers and the general look of the machine. The colours were much darker, especially the green. I can't remember what was on the roof of the machine.

It was kept outside by a small cafe near to a small lake under a number of large trees along with an electric shock machine with two handles and we all used to interlink our hands, therefore we all got a shock which could be increased by rotating one of the handles.

There were a number of other machines which I just can't remember, though there was also a name plate making machine. We used to use rowing boats and paddle boats on the small lake (for a small fee) which had an island in the middle.

There were about 12 machines which were then moved nearby to a barn/shed which we still used but they 'vanished' years later. I'll ask my brother if his memory is better than mine!
All the best from Neale.

It's taken me a bit of time to find, but I knew I had a newspaper cutting of the machine. Not on my computer but a real piece of paper!

I'm amazed a Cricketer was still being operated so 'recently', yooser27. Great to hear those memories. Yes, do quiz your brother.

What is that wizard doing to those tiny men???

Alexander Thynn, otherwise known as Lord Bath (6.5.1932 - 4.4.2020) the 7th Marquess of Bath, was what we in the UK call "an eccentric" both in his dress sense and his private life.

pennymachines wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:30 pm I'm amazed a Cricketer was still being operated so 'recently', yooser27. Great to hear those memories. Yes, do quiz your brother.

Hello,
My brother doesn't remember much more than me except that the cricket game was boring
I will be going past Raby Mere tomorrow and will have a nostalgic look around.
Cheers from Neale.

It's a good job your brother isn't contributing to the auction catalogue then.

He is right though; a large proportion of early coin op is dull to play. You wonder how operators ever made money. I guess life was much more simple then.

Gameplay on these earliest machines can be a bit underwhelming, but that's now part of their charm. It's fun to see their primitive mechanisms in action and marvel at what naive amusement a penny could buy at the start of the 20th century.

The Cricketer mechanism is evidently more or less identical to the Two Man Footballer. On that game you insert one penny and can win it back by shooting the ball into either of the goals. If it goes beyond the goals, you lose.

Looking at the instructions and various pictures, the win targets on the Cricketer seem to be the losers on the Footballer. The aim seems to be to knock the ball beyond the left hand or right hand boundary (marked by red and blue flags), presumably achieved by either striking it with the bat, or bowling it beyond the batsman. It appears that directly hitting the stumps would result in a lose, which seems a bit counterintuitive. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

The game is to show the skill of the batsman. As clearly this is W.G. Grace, everyone would want to bat. So as a two player game the operator would hope for at least two plays. The batsman wins if he scores a boundary; any other result when the batsman is out bowled, caught or stumped gives no reward to the bowler other than the satisfaction of beating Mr. Grace!

Now you put it that way, it all makes sense.
If the bowler throws it past WG and it goes out of bounds, the coin's returned for another play.

I have cricket, golf and football, certainly not among my favourite machines but they do have their place in the history of coin op.

That's quite a set! It would be great to see pictures of them.

I’ll grab a pic of the golf later