Hastings Old Town micropub revives traditional Sussex pub game

Toad in The Hole is an old Sussex pub game involving throwing brass coins at a lead topped table with a hole in the middle. The game is a more refined version of the coin-throwing game pitch penny.

The game itself involves throwing four brass coins or "toads" from the same distance as a dart board, to a square toad table, made of wooden legs and with a lead surface. If a toad goes down the hole it scores two points, or if it lands on the top it scores one point. If it hits the back of the table, or falls off it is void, so a grand total of eight points per turn can be scored. Scoring is performed in darts fashion, playing from 31 down. The first competitor throws two toads, with their opponent then throwing three, and from then on they throw all four, until they reach scores of less than four, wherein only the number of toads equal to the required finishing score may be thrown. Like darts, players must finish exactly - scoring more results in the player being "bust".

The Jolly Fisherman is known for its wide range of ever-changing traditional ales, ciders and craft beers and Belgian bottles beers. It is one of the Hastings pubs involved in organising the hugely popular Tap Takeover even in October, which is a town wide pub crawl showcasing different independent breweries.

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