Parkfield Labour Club Welsh Don League
Congratulations Parkfield Labour Club
WINNERS 2015
The card game Don, which is played in various forms in Ireland and Britain, is a descendant of the old game of All Fours. In the nineteenth century the game of Dom Pedro became popular in both Ireland and America. In Ireland the name was shortened to Don, and it seems likely that it was from Ireland that it spread to England and Wales.
The first version described on this page is Nine-card Don, which is played in Cheshire, Lancashire and South Wales. According to Arthur Taylor’s “Guiness Book of Traditional Pub Games” (1992) it is also known as Big Don, Long Don, or Welsh Don.
The second game is Blind Don, or Two Player Don, which is a version of Nine-Card Don for two players, played in Lancashire.
The third version is played mainly in Ireland, and I have therefore called it Irish Don on this page, though in Ireland it is just known as Don. It differs from Nine-card Don in that all the cards are dealt – 13 to each player rather than nine, that the scoring value of the nines is increased, and that there is no score for ‘game’.
The fourth game on this page is Phat, which is played in England and Scotland, and is quite similar to Irish Don, but with the ‘game’ score as in 9-card Don included. I do not know the origin of the name Phat, which is applied to the high scoring cards as well as the game overall. It is tempting to think that the valuable cards are ‘fat’ because they carry many points, but that does not account for the spelling of the name.
Nine Card Don
This description is based on information from players in the Bolton Don League (Lancashire) and the Abercarn Crib and Don League (South Wales), and reports from other players in both areas: Pontypool, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales and Preston in Lancashire. I am told that this game is also extremely popular in Cheshire and former parts of Cheshire such as Widnes, Stockport and Stalybridge. It is played intensively in the Cheshire Regiment – now 1st Bn The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire) and also, to a lesser extent, in the Staffordshire Regiment – now 3rd Bn The Mercian Regiment (Staffordshire).
Players and objective
There are four players in fixed partnerships; partners sit opposite each other. Deal and play are clockwise. This is a point trick game: each team scores points during the play for winning particular cards in tricks, and also the team which has the greater total value of cards in their tricks, according to a different card value scale, scores extra points. The first team to reach an agreed total (91 or 121) wins the game.
Cards, Ranking and Values
A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards in each of the four suits rank from high to low A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Tricks have no value in themselves; the object is to win tricks with certain cards in them. It is important to distinguish between the points that are scored during the play (usually by pegging on a peg board) for winning tricks containing particular trumps or any five, and the card values in all suits that are used to decide which team scores the extra points for ‘game’ at the end of the play.
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In South Wales the Fives are generally known as Dons.
Choice of players, Seating, Deal
The cards are cut for first ‘pitch’, i.e. the right to lead first (and make trumps) on the first deal. One player from each partnership draws a card and the higher card wins, with Ace counting high. The winner of the cut decides who will lead to the first trick (normally if you win the cut you should give the first pitch to yourself or your partner).
The person to the right of the player with the pitch is the first dealer. The dealer shuffles, and offers the cards to the player on his right to cut. The dealer then deals nine cards to each player, one at a time. The remaining 16 cards are set aside face down and are not used in that hand. Subsequently the turn to deal rotates clockwise after each hand. The pitcher is the player to dealer’s left.
The players may look at and sort their hands, except for the player to dealer’s right – the pitcher’s partner – who must not touch the cards until after the first card has been led. (This is to prevent any possibility of illegally signalling to the pitcher which suit to make trumps.)
In Lancashire, Don is often played in pubs, where there may be more than four people waiting for a game. In this case, a procedure called ‘jacks out’ is used to decide which four people will play. Those who wish to take part (5 to 7 people – because if there were 8 you would have two complete tables) each place a stake (typically a pound – maybe 5 pounds) on the table, and the cards are dealt out one at a time, face up to the stakes. When a jack appears, the player who contributed that stake is in the game, and no further cards are dealt to that stake. Where the four jacks eventually land, those are the players. All the stakes, including those of the players who were not selected, form a pool which goes to the eventual winners of the game. Partnerships are then determined by cutting cards. In some pubs, people also bet on who will be partners.
Play
The player to dealer’s left is the pitcher. The pitcher leads to the first trick, and the suit of the first card led becomes trumps for the remainder of the hand. The pitcher’s partner may then pick up his or her cards. Tricks are won by the highest card of the suit led unless trumped, in which case the highest trump wins. Players must follow suit (play a card of the same suit as the card that was led) whenever possible; a player who has no card of the suit led may trump or discard at will. The winner of each trick leads to the next trick.
Parkfield Labour Club 