Is anything known about the game Tippy played in the street in poor neighborhoods around 1920's?

Answer 1

As a child of immigrant parents from Russia (1925), I was taught the game of Tippy by my parents during the 1930's and 40's. They called the game "Klepke" in Low German. We called it "Tippy" in my home city of Winnipeg, Canada. Many people living in the North End of Winnipeg during the 30's and 40's remember playing this street game. We found that the youth in Russian play a similar game called "Chizhik". In Bulgaria it is called "Chilik". During my teaching career in Winnipeg, I taught this game to my Grade 5 class. The Filipino children in my class told me that they knew this game! They had played this popular game in the Philippines, called "Shatto". The similarity between Tippy and the English street game TipCat is probably no coincidence. The difference between the Cat (a sharply pointed 6" stick) and the short stick used in Tippy is probably an adaptation to reduce the hazzard of poking out an eye! Recently, searching the web, I found a similar street game called Gulli-Danda being played in India. Particular mention is made here of the danger of losing an eye from the flying Gulli.

This game requires two sticks of relatively hard wood, freshly cut and stripped of bark. One stick is 2' long while the other is 10" long. The diameter is ¾" and the ends are rounded. A bowl shaped hole, 6" in diameter is dug in the ground. This serves as the home plate.The long stick is the bat and the short stick is the "ball" which is flipped or hit out into the playing field where the opposite team tries to catch it. If it is not caught it is thrown back toward the hole. Teams take turns at bat. The opposite team takes field positions within a designated, pie-shaped area. Fielders should not stand within 50' of the batter to avoid being injured by the flying stick! Each team has three outs in each inning, just like in Baseball. Each player at bat has three strikes. Strike one, two and three each have a different manner of batting the short stick out into the field.

The short stick is laid across the hole and flipped out into the field by the batter. If an opposing player catches the stick the batter is out. If not, the batter lays the long stick across the hole and the fielder tosses the short stick toward the hole, trying to hit the long stick, in which case the batter is out. Otherwise, the batter proceeds to strike two.

The short stick is held in the same hand as the long stick. Then the short stick is tossed into the air and hit out into the field with the long stick. If an opposing player catches the stick the batter is out. If not, the batter holds the long stick vertically just in front of the hole while the fielder tosses the short stick back at the hole, trying to get the short stick into or over the hole. The batter defends the hole by hitting at the short stick while it is still moving. If the short stick lands in the hole the batter is out. Otherwise, the batter proceeds to strike three.

This is the strike where points are actually accumulated. The short stick is placed into the hole, leaning diagonally against the edge of the hole. The batter tips the upper part of the short stick with the long stick causing it to spin end over end up into the air. Then, before the short stick hits the ground, the batter hits it out into the field. If it is caught the batter is out. If not, it is left lying where it comes to rest and the batter measures the distance between the hole and the short stick by using the long stick as a measure. This is done by end-over-ending the long stick along the ground. The number of long stick lengths is the score for that batter. After strike three the next batter is up. Play continues until the team at bat has three outs. The teams then switch sides. A batting order is maintained just like in baseball. The team with the highest accumulation of player scores wins the game.

Answer 2

Yes in the 40's and early fifty's we played tippy,we cannot remember how to count the points but the basics of the game we remember.