Balyna Discbat Cricket

Game Title: Balyna Discbat Cricket

Publisher: Toogood & Jones Ltd.

Year: 1940s(?)

Mechanism: A variation of the classic cricket game. Small plastic fielders, a mechanism to allow batting, one to allow bowling, a ball and a field made up of different run areas. It doesn’t get much simpler.

Description: Sister product of Balyna Football, a competitor to Subbuteo, Balyna Discbat Cricket is highly collectible in my opinion because of the quality and completeness of the components. In many ways the game is quite surreal, with the bowler being represented by an aluminim funnel from which the fielding team bowls the ball. The batsman is a counter weight which is held by a piece of cotton by the player. When the ball is bowled, the batsman releases the counter weight and, depending on the angle can play a variety of shots. Certainly not the earliest version of this style of game, it’s nonetheless better than the dull, mass produced games of the 70s and 80s. Great scoreboard too, but completely unworkable as the scoreboard is metal and the score numbers cardboard. They fall apart quite quickly.