History
The exact history of Sjoelen is unknown. More is known of some games that are similar.
In 16th century England a game called shovel-board was played on a 30 feet long table. From shovel-board the varieties deck shuffleboard and table shuffleboard are still known. In school gyms you will often find deck shuffleboard courts. In deck shuffle board the players push a weighted, wooden puck with a paddle and try to let the puck end in one of the numbered areas that are found at the other end in a triangular form.
From around the same time is the game Shove-ha-penny. This game is played on a much smaller board. The players get five coins per turns. In each turn the player pushes his coins from the side and tries to let the coins end in one of the nine scoring zones on the board. The first player who ends three coins in each of the nine scoring zones wins.
And then there was sjoelen. Whether or not it is developed from the above games, or even related, nobody knows. Nobody even knows who invented the sjoelbak. By the end of the 19th century sjoelen showed up and quickly gained in popularity. The sjoelbak spread around the country. The game is also played in other countries like Belgium and Germany. Sjoelen is a very Dutch game. Each family in the Netherlands has a sjoelbak in the house.
Rules
Sjoelen is played with 30 wooden pucks on a wooden sjoelbak or sjoel board. The board is 2 meters long and about 40 centimeters wide. That is about 79 inches long and about 16 inches wide. The long sides of the board have wooden walls. One end is open and the other end has a wall with slots.
The slots are numbered from left to right with 2, 3, 4 and 1 dots over the slots. The dots indicate the number of points earned if a puck goes through the slot. If a player slides one puck in each slot, then this is called a series. A player earns twenty points for each series instead of 10 points.
Each player gets three turns to slide as many pucks as possible through the slots. Only pucks that didn't slide through the slots can be used in the next turn. Between turns the pucks are stacked in the slots. The points are counted at the end of the third turn.
After each player had their three turns, the player with the highest score wins.
Variations
Kids can play the game for hours, often making up their own rules to play the game. For example, there may be obstacles in the middle of the board that may not be touched by the pucks or may not be knocked over.
Outdoor variations also exist. “Leven sjoelen” or “Living Sjoelen” is a huge, wet air cushion. The players are living pucks that try to slide to the gate with the highest points. You may try to make it yourself by spreading plastic foil over a soft surface and place gates near one side, ideal for the summer. Supersjoelen is sjoelen on a five meters long board with dish size pucks. This is a popular game at festivals all through the Netherlands.
Also, there is a iPhone version of Sjoelen. This game is called iSjoel.
