Multi-game puck board: English palet, Dutch shuffleboard, Trou-madame

This board combines three puck games: “English palet”, “Dutch shuffleboard” and “Trou-madame”.

A good way to have traditional wooden games without taking up much space.

It is made entirely of beech and measures 163 x 43 cm.

Trou-madame

The aim of the game is to roll 10 large pucks under the arches, but beware, they may go off in every direction!

It is the descendant of the passe-boule, in which balls had to be passed through the hole in a board. They then rolled down an inclined plane that led them into differently numbered compartments. In Belgium, trou-madame was used to entertain wives during Flemish bowls competitions. The game is said to take its name from Madame, the Queen of England, who owned such a game in... gold. Courtiers then spoke of Madame’s game.

Rules of Trou-madame:

Set up the front board with vertical slots.
Throw the pucks by rolling them on their edge.
A puck scores the points of the compartment it has entered. Several pucks may enter the same compartment; the points scored are then the value of the compartment multiplied by the number of pucks in it. If 2 pucks enter a compartment named in advance, the total points scored are multiplied by 2. If the first 5 pucks enter 5 different compartments, the points scored are multiplied by 5.
A puck may push another and help it into a compartment. A puck counts as entered once its centre has passed the inner face of the front board. Several players may not throw at the same time.

This convivial game lets all the members of a family or a group of friends of any age have fun together.

Dutch shuffleboard

Dutch shuffleboard, or sjoelbak, is a game widely played in the Netherlands (as its name suggests), but also in Belgium and northern France.

Rules of Dutch shuffleboard:

Set up the front board with horizontal slots.
The aim is to score as many points as possible by getting wooden pucks into compartments.
The pucks are thrown with a “sliding” motion.
Dutch shuffleboard can be played alone or with several players.

Each player throws 10 pucks, trying to get them into the compartments at the end of the board. These compartments are worth 1 to 5 points.
Once all the pucks have been thrown, the player may collect those that did not enter a compartment and throw them a second time. They do the same a third time with the pucks that did not go in on the 2nd throw.

English palet

Each player in turn slides the five pucks across the playing surface.
The aim is to place one puck in each zone from one to five without touching the lines.
A puck may be pushed with another.
When all 5 pucks have been played, the player notes the zones achieved.
The winner is the first player to have placed a puck in each zone.
All players must have played the same number of rounds.
In the event of a tie, 1 extra round is played and the points scored in that round are counted according to the value of the zones.