Squails
SQUAILS (from skail or kail, aninepin), an old English game in which disks are snapped or struck with the palm from the edge of a table or board at a mark at its centre. Its early prototype was shove-groat, called also slyp-groat or slide-thrift, which in the 18th century went under, the name of jervis or jariiis. This last variation was played on a table marked with chalk into alleys divided into squares numbered from i to 9 or 10, the object being to send a halfpenny into a high- numbered space. If it went beyond nothing was scored. The highest aggregate of a certain number of plays won. The most scientific development of this class of games is the modern Shuffle-board (q.v.).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
