Howzat! 1977

Each player draws an 11 x 10 grid. The columns are numbered and the rows lettered. In each of the ten columns the players distribute four 0's, three 1 's, two 2's, one 4, and an A for appeal in any order. The players then take it in turn to bowl an over. It is advisable for each player to record the outcome of his over on a spare grid.

Object The player who scores the most runs before all ten of his appeals are located is the winner.

Play The bowler picks a line of six contiguous squares as the over. They are announced by simply giving the starting square and the direction — e.g. E5/SE. The batsman plots this line on his grid and announces the total number of runs scored (i.e. the sum of the numbers passed through) and the number of appeals. If a bowler thinks he knows the position of all ten appeals, he cries 'Howzat!' and reads out the positions. If any are wrongly placed the batsman draws up a fresh grid and continues anew. If the bowler is right, the batting side is all out. Obviously, if one side is still batting with more runs scored when the other side is all out, they need not continue. The bowler can then guess at the positions of the ten appeals, to discover the number of wickets down, and so determine the winning margin.

With a little ingenuity, limited-over and two-innings matches can be devised, together with individual batting and bowling figures, etc.