Beat the Germans? You must be off your tolley

Marbles have supposedly been played at Tinsley Green in West Sussex since 1588, and judging by the length of the beards on display at yesterday's world championships some of the original players are still competing. Tinsley Green must have been delightfully bucolic in the late 16th century when, so the story goes, two local youths played marbles for the favours of a local milk maid.

Now, there are no milk maids; the Greyhound pub - venue for the event since 1932 - has a big sign advertising "Sky Sports Live on plasma TV", and the rural serenity is punctuated by planes taking off from Gatwick airport.

Marbles are the still centre of this changing world. "They're wonderful things," says Sam McCarthy-Fox, secretary of the British Marbles Board of Control. "They're so tactile. It's a lovely feeling when you run your hands through a big bowl of marbles."

Mr McCarthy-Fox has been the secretary of the BMBC since 1977 - year of the great schism when one faction attempted to revolutionise the sport, introducing Astroturf and electronic scoreboards, and moving the world championships to Crawley sports centre. Mr McCarthy-Fox refused to budge from the Greyhound, held a rival event with two teams of Morris Men, and the rest is marbling history. Marbles were never again played on Astroturf.

The world championships are now global, or at least Anglo-German. Leading British teams such as the Black Dog Boozers, the Handcross 49ers and the Barrel Scrapers vie with crack units from Germany, including MC Erzgevirge, who won the title last year, and three-times champions Saxonia Globe Snippers.

Other teams are, frankly, only here for the beer. Indeed, one team is called Only Here for the Beer.

Miss Marble Investigates have come from London and are looking nervous. "The Germans are so serious," complains captain Ben Wilson. "They're all wearing shell suits and have been here since Wednesday practising. The only practice we've had was on the train down. I use to play as a kid, but this is a whole new ball game."

Unfortunately for Miss Marbles Investigates, this is not like the marbles kids play. Two teams of six take it in turns to drive marbles off a raised concrete ring, using a shooting marble called the "tolley". The official rules run to four pages, but the key ones seem to be: a player's knuckle has to be in touch with the ground when he shoots ("knuckling down"), only the thumb can be used to direct the tolley, "cabbaging" - moving your tolley closer to the target marbles - is banned, and pints of lager must be consumed at all times.

Even the shell-suited MC Erzgevirge are on the lager - "beer and marbling are one thing", says team spokesman Jens Wohlgemuth - but they look supremely confident. "We've been practising three times a week for a couple of months," says Mr Wohlgemuth, "and believe we can win again. But the Black Dog Boozers could be a threat."

MC Erzgevirge, from Neukirchen in east Germany, had a 29-hour drive in a minibus to get here; the Black Dog Boozers come from Crawley, half a mile away. Will tiredness tell?

Probably not. The Germans sweep the Yorkshire Meds aside 25-15 in the first round. Meanwhile, Miss Marble Investigates take out the Last Minuters, most of whom are children, 8-3 in a game of startling incompetence.

"We're surprised and delighted to have won," says Mr Wilson, eating a barbecue sausage after the match. "We're sorry to have knocked out a team with an average age of 11, but that's what you have to do in top level competitive marbles."

The casual observer might think this is a Good Friday joke, but did the casual observer watch the gripping encounter between Saxonia and the Bognor-based Barrel Scrapers, won 24-23 by the German team after a struggle of almost unbearable intensity? Mr McCarthy-Fox insists: "Some teams are here for a laugh, but others are deadly serious."

By mid-afternoon, Miss Marble Investigates have been humbled 25-2 by the Handcross 49ers ("the four pints we had at lunchtime hindered our performance," admits a shell-shocked Mr Wilson).

The Germans look invincible, but the Worthing-based British Marbles Board of Control has a card up its sleeve. "The winners get a silver trophy, and the runners-up get a crate of beer," explains Mr McCarthy-Fox. "You'd have to be mad to want to come first. Or German."