An old favorite aboard ship, the Bull Board upon which disks are tossed can be chalked on a wooden or tile floor, painted on a piece of white oilcloth, or crayoned on shelf or wrapping paper, as indicated in Figure 5.14. The overall size will be determined by the sizes of the disks employed. For 3-in. disks cut from plywood, wallboard, or linoleum, the layout should measure 3 ft. by 4 ft. to permit 1-ft. squares; for pennies, small metal washers, or checkers, a convenient table size is 12 in. by 16 in.

Fig. 5.14. Bull board tossing game.

Players pitch their disks from a distance of from 8 to 10 ft., scoring the amount of the number into which the disk lands. If one falls into the "bull" square the player's previous score is canceled. If the disk falls on a line, it is scored according to the square within which the larger portion of the disk rests, or if that cannot be determined, it may be thrown again. Sometimes it is ruled that a disk which touches any line is "dead," counting for no score.

Two players may throw alternately until one of them totals 100, or they may toss 5 disks which count as a "round" or "inning," and a point scored for each inning won. Teams may compete by giving each player 2, 3, or 5 tosses in turn, depending on the size of the group, with the highest team score winning.

Extra harassment can be provided by adding 2 more bulls at the lower corners, with an added bonus square of 10 between them. This will increase the length of the board to 5 ft. and 20 in. respectively.

Sequence play requires more skill and will add zest to the game when its simplicity commences to pall. If the game has been expanded to 4 bulls, each square from 1 to the upper 10 must be played in numerical sequence, then the lower 10 back to 1 again, after which the 4 bulls are played clockwise, commencing with the one in the upper right-hand corner. Each player tosses 5 disks, but may pick them up and continue playing as long as he or she is able to maintain the sequence successfully; or he may be limited to only 5 disks in each turn.

The 4 bulls may be used as penalties in various combinations. For example, if 1 bull is thrown, the player must drop back one number in the sequence; if he throws 2 bulls he drops back 2 numbers, and for 3 bulls he must start all over again. However, it may be ruled that 4 bulls in succession cancel out the other 3. This rule of course has no connection with the end of the game when the player is trying to score bulls, except when the wrong bull is made.

Sequence Bull Board can be scored in points by adding up the numerical values until the winner scores 110 points. In this case the bulls may be used as hazardous rewards by ruling that 1 bull cancels the score made by a player during his inning; 2 bulls mutually cancel out; 3 bulls double the score made in the inning, and 4 bulls double the player's total score. This means that the first one to complete the sequence may not have the highest numerical score.