Although named 'schoolboy cricket', most probably because it is often played in school classrooms on rainy days, this is a game which has been played for decades by cricket lovers of all ages. There are two versions of it - the home-made and the purchased, but in both cases the rules are same.

Playing the Game

Let us consider the home-made game. You will need two six-sided pencils, two pieces of paper to use as scorecards, and a pen or pencil with which to score. The game can be played by one or two players.

Preparation

Firstly, take the two pencils. Each of the six faces of one of them should be numbered one to six, except for number five. Where number five should be, the word 'out', or sometimes 'Howzat!' is written. There are two variations in the way that the second pencil is marked:

• Six methods of being out in cricket (caught, bowled, LBW, etc) are written on each of the six faces
• Five faces of the pencil have a method of being out, but the sixth is marked 'Not out'. This adds more interest to the game for the batsman since it (very slightly) increases the odds of making a bigger innings.

Real enthusiasts for this game may go as far as to reject the idea of pencils and make their own scoring and 'Howzat!' rollers from a piece of wood or metal, as well as using professional cricketing scorecards and compiling leagues of teams.

Play Begins

After having tossed and decided who is to bat first and who to field, the first 'ball' is bowled. In fact, what happens is that the player representing the batting team rolls the first pencil (the one with the number of runs on it). When the pencil comes to rest, the number shown on the uppermost face is recorded as that player's cumulative score. The process is repeated until the word 'out' (or 'Howzat!') is shown. Now it's the turn of the player representing the fielding team to roll the other pencil to determine the method of dismissal. The player's innings is recorded on the scorecard.

Play continues until ten members of the batting team have been dismissed. Just as in the real game, the batting team now becomes the fielding team and vice versa, and play resumes for another ten dismissals. At this point (or if previously agreed upon) you can either conclude the game and declare a winner, as would be the case in a one-day game, or play two more innings as in most other first class cricket games.

The Proprietary Version

A few toy manufacturers picked up on the idea of this game and produced their own versions of it. The pencils were replaced by hexagonal pieces of either wood or metal¹, and the scorecards were made to look like proper cricket scorecards.