GB2175810A - Table ball game apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Table ball game apparatus comprising a playing surface (2), a plurality of dummies (8) representing players mounted on supports extending through slots (4, 5, 6) in the playing surface which slots run in a first direction (preferably transverse to the intended direction of play), at least one carriage member moveable back and forth in said first direction beneath the playing surface and carrying a plurality of said player dummies, at least some dummies associated with a single carriage member being associated with slots spaced in a second direction which is transverse to said first direction. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Table ball game apparatus The present invention relates to table ball game apparatus.

Many forms of apparatus for playing table ball games have been proposed previously. In particular, games such as the conventional "table football" game have featured player dummies strung on operating rods terminating in operating handles. The rods pass through the dummies from side to side in the midregion of the dummies so that the dummies can be rotated by the rods which extend from side to side of a playing table above a playing surface. The rods can be shifted to carry their particular row of players from side to side and can be rotated to enable the players to strike the ball. The movements of the players do not simulate the movements of real players well.

In other table ball games, player dummies are mounted on a playing surface on rotatable spindles passing through the playing surface so that the player dummies can be rotated about respective vertical axes as if turning on one foot in a more natural movement. The dummies may be fixed in position with respect to the playing surface of the table, other than as regards rotation, or a row of dummies across the playing surface may be mounted on a moveable carriage for movement laterally of the table. Slots are provided in the playing surface to accommodate movement of the spindles supporting the dummies in the lateral direction. A mechanism such as a bevel gear arrangement may be provided for rotating the dummies about their respective axes, all of the dummies associated with each carriage rotating in synchrony.A significant difficulty in playing a game of this kind is the need to operate a number of different operating handles associated with different rows of dummies. The bevel gear transmission systems employed are relatively expensive, are liable to wear and impose a relatively high degree of friction. Other gearing systems have been proposed for communicating the rotary movement to the dummies but generally these impose a high frictional load.

Our co-pending Application No. 8325859 describes a form of connection between the player dummies and the operating handles which provides a particularly low friction, low wear mechanism for the rotation of the dummies whilst still allowing lateral movement of the dummies on a carriage.

A different operating handle is however still associated with each row of dummies.

The present invention now provides table ball game apparatus comprising a playing surface, a plurality of dummies representing players mounted on supports extending through slots in the playing surface which slots run in a first direction, at least one carriage moveable back and forth in said first direction beneath the playing surface and carrying a plurality of said player dummies, at least some dummies associated with a single carriage member being associated with slots spaced in a second direction which is transverse to said first direction.

Preferably, the first direction is transverse to the intended direction of play and the second direction is in the intended direction of play.

Preferably there is at least one pair of said carriage members carrying player dummies associated with slots spaced in said second direction.

The apparatus may further comprise at least one pair of carriage members carrying player dummies associated only with a slot or with a plurality of slots not spaced in the second direction.

Preferably, there are two equivalent sets of carriage members associated with player dummies, one set being for the use of one player and the other set being for the use of another player.

Preferably, each member of each pair of carriage members comprises an operating handle projecting generally in said first direction in a sense opposite to that of the other member of said pair.

Thus preferably, the apparatus comprises operating handles projecting laterally of each of two opposed edges of the playing surface for use by respective players. There may be more than one operating handle projecting on each side for each player's use.

The player dummies should be provided with some action to enable them to strike a ball in play. Preferably, the dummies are rotatably mounted to rotate about an axis transverse to the playing surface. They are preferably provided with a striking member immediately above the playing surface and radially spaced from the said axis of rotation.

Such a striking member may be made to imitate a player's foot or a stick, racquet or bat held by the player, for instance a hockey stick.

Preferably, a rotary drive member is associated with each carriage member and is connected to rotate those dummies carried by said carriage member.

Preferably, the rotary drive member is a rotatable drive spindle, each dummy is mounted on a rotatable player support spindle and a respective line is wound at least full turn about each player support spindle and is attached to the drive spindle and/or coiled thereon to be simultaneously wound thereon and unwound therefrom upon rotation of the drive spindle in either sense to produce rotation of the dummy upon rotation of the drive spindle.

The use of a line coiled about spindles instead of a continuous belt or band passing around the player support spindle and the drive spin dle enables a sufficient grip to be obtained to turn the spindles without there being any pretensioning of the line. This helps to avoid friction in the mechanism.

The drive spindle is suitably directly connected to the operating handle of the carriage member.

The line may be a string, cord or rope of natural or synthetic material such as a nylon cord, a wire or cable or a plastics or rubber monofilament line. The line may be of round cross-section, of square cross-section, of flattened cross-section as in a belt.

The playing surface is preferably marked out to simulate a conventional ball game field. It is therefore preferably provided with at least one goal, preferably a pair of goals. The playing surface may for instance be marked as a football pitch or as a hockey pitch.

Whilst the apparatus of the invention may be used in conjunction with one or more balls in play, the apparatus may equally well be used in conjunction with substitutes for a ball such as one or more pucks.

The invention will be illustrated by the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the following drawings in which: Figure 1 is a top plan view of game apparatus according to the invention; Figure 2 is a view similar to that of Fig. 1 but with the playing surface removed to reveal the mechanism of the apparatus; Figure 3 is a section on the line B-B of Fig.

2; Figure 4 is a cross-section on the line A-A of Fig. 2; and Figure 5 is a top plan view of a second embodiment according to the invention.

As shown in Fig. 1, game apparatus according to the invention comprises a deep frame 1 mounted on legs (not shown) and surrounding and supporting a playing surface 2 having a pair of raised lands 3 on either side of a central depressed land 3a. The raised lands 3 are so shaped and contoured that a ball will always run off them into the lower area 3a.

The playing surface is provided with six laterally running slots 4, 5, 6, forming two sets, each member of each set haing a different length. The slots 4, 5, 6 run laterally of a play direction defined by opposite goals 7 of conventional form. In the goal 7 an aperture 12 (Fig. 3) is formed in the playing surface so that balls entering the goal will fall below the playing surface into a capture mechanism (not shown).

Player dummies 8 are mounted on spindles 9 passing up through the playing surface and accommodated by the slots 4, 5, 6. A single goalkeeper player dummy is provided in the slot 4. A pair of midfield player dummies are provided in the slot 5 and a trio of forward player dummies are provided in the slot 6.

A pair of operating handles 10 project laterally outwardly of the playing surface 2.

As seen in Fig. 2, each operating handle 10 is provided on the end of an operating rod 11 running laterally of the play direction beneath the playing surface and supported for sliding movement and for rotation about its axis in the frame which supports the playing surface.

A carriage member 13 is fixed on the operating rod 11 and is supported for lateral sliding movement on a pair of laterally extending support rods 14, 15 at bushings 16, 17 in forwardly and rearwardly projecting wali members 16a and 17a.

As best seen in Fig. 4, the carriage 13 comprises an upper plate 18 and a lower plate 19 spaced by side walls 20. Operating rod 11 is supported for rotation in bearings in the side walls 20 at opposite sides of the carriage member 13 but is longitudinally fixed to the carriage member. A stop rod 21 projects from ona wall 20 parallel to the operating rod 11 immediately above the operating rod 11. A radial stub arm 22 projects radially from the operating arm 11 adjacent the operating handle 10 and interference between the radial stub arm 22 and the stop arm 21 prevents spinning of the handle 10. End stops are provided to limit the travel of the operating rod 11 longitudinally.

Where it runs within the carriage member 13, operating rod 11 bears an elongate cylindrical drive spindle 25 fixed thereon which is of greater diameter than the operating rod 11.

Mounted for rotation in pairs of bearings in the upper and the lower plates 18, 19 of the carriage 13 are a plurality of player support spindles 23. As seen in Fig. 2, these are arranged in three ranks spaced in the play direction. A first rank contains three spindles spaced in the direction lateral of the play direction, the second rank contains two spaced spindles and the third rank contains a single spindle. Each spindle is provided with a respective line 24, preferably in the form of a cord.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, each cord is coiled several times around the respective player support spindle and the two free ends of the cord are taken over the drive spindle 25 on opposite sides and are attached thereto, preferably being coiled thereon by at least one half turn so that both free ends can be attached at generally circumferentially aligned positions as shown, suitably by being pinched beneath a longitudinally running cover strip fastened onto the spindle 25 over the cords.

Each player support spindle carries a player dummy (not shown). The carriage 13 bearing six player dummies can be slid laterally of the play direction, movement of the dummies being accommodated by the slots in the playing surface. The lateral movement is of course brought about by pulling and pushing the handle 10. Rotation of the handle 10 to rotate the operating rod 11 and the drive spindle 25 thereof causes the cord to be wound at one end onto the drive spindle 25 while simultaneously being unwound at the other end from the drive spindle 25 with consequent rotation of the respective player support spindle. This occurs for all of the player support spindles simultaneously. The diameters of the drive spindle 25 and the player support spindles 9 may be chosen so as to produce any desired gearing between the rotation of the operating handle 10 and the rotation of the player dummies.As illustrated, the ends of each cord are fastened to the drive spindle at circumferentially aligned but longitudinally spaced locations and a half turn of cord is taken around the drive spindle. When the drive spindle is rotated, cord is wound onto the drive spindle at orie end of the cord and simultaneously unwound from the drive spindle at the other.

Whilst each player dummy spindle may have its own separate line fixed at each end to the drive spindle, it is equally possible for a common line to serve two or more drive spindles.

Alternatively, separate lines may be provided for imparting anti-clockwise and clockwise rotation respectively to any of the player dummy spindles. Such a separate line may be fixed at one end to the player dummy spindle and wound in a first sense about the spindle and taken to the drive spindle and attached. A separate line may be attached to the player dummy spindle, wound around the spindle in the opposite sense, taken to the opposite side of the drive spindle and attached to the drive spindle. The effect of this in use will be the same as the use of a single line which is wound around the player dummy spindle and fixed to the drive of the spindle.

Many other forms of wound connection between the respective spindles are possible using one or more lines to achieve the effect desired.

Generally speaking, there should be a position of the player dummy spindle with respect to the drive spindle in which line is coiled around the player dummy spindle and a first portion of line is taken to a first side of the drive spindle and sufficiently connected thereto so as to be wound onto the drive spindle upon rotation thereof in a first sense and a second portion of the line is taken to the other side of the drive spindle and sufficiently connected thereto such that it will be wound onto the drive spindle upon rotation of the drive spindle in an opposite sense. The first and second portions of line may be separate lines or may be parts of the same line.

The line may be a continuous line, in which case it will generally be sufficient connection to the drive spindle for the line to be coiled thereover one or preferably more turns.

The sense of movement of the player dummy spindles obtained upon rotation of the operating handle in a particular sense may be the same as the sense of rotation of the operating handle or may be opposite to it. Thus clockwise rotation of the operating handle may give rise to anti-clockwise rotation of the player dummy spindles. The direction of rotation of the player dummy spindles for a given sense of rotation of the operating handle need not be the same for every player dummy spindle. By winding the control lines in different manners for different player dummy spindles, opposite senses of rotation can be obtained for different player dummy spindles.

The mode of connection between the drive spindles and the player dummy spindles described provides a particularly robust, simple and 16w friction arrangement enabling a single drive spindle to control the rotation of several distinct rows of player dummies and facilitating the use of a carriage bearing player dummies in several rows controlled by a single operating handle for both sliding movement laterally of the playing surface and rotary movement upon their own axes simultaneous with or separate from the lateral movement.

As shown in Fig. 5, a more complex game apparatus according to the invention comprises both carriages mounting player dummies in more than one row and carriages mounting player dummies in a single row.

Each player is provided with three operating handles 30, 31, 32. Handle 30 controls a carriage bearing a goalkeeper dummy and two back dummies in a similar manner to carriage 13 of Fig. 2. Handle 31 controls a carriage bearing a single row of three midfield dummies and handle 32 controls a carriage bearing a single row of three forward dummies.

Apart from having dummies in a single row only, the carriages controlled by handles 31 and 32 otherwise resemble the carriage 13 of Fig. 2. A similar provision is made for the opposing player.

Whilst the present invention has been described with reference to particular characteristics of the illustrated embodiments, many modifications and variations thereof are possible within the scope of the invention.

Claims (12)

1. Table ball game apparatus comprising a playing surface, a plurality of dummies representing players mounted on supports extending through slots in the playing surface which slots run in a first direction, at least one carriage member moveable back and forth in said first direction beneath the playing surface and carrying a plurality of said player dummies, at least some dummies associated with a single carriage member being associated with slots spaced in a second direction which is transverse to said first direction.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the first direction is transverse to the intended direction of play and the second direction is in the intended direction of play.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein there is at least one pair of said carriage members carrying player dummies associated with slots spaced in said second direction.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising at least one pair of carriage members carrying player dummies associated only with a slot or with a plurality of slots not spaced in the second direction.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein there are two equivalent sets of carriage members associated with player dummies, one set being for the use of one player and the other set being for the use of another player.

6. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, wherein each member of each pair of carriage members comprises an operating handle projecting generally in said first direction in a sense opposite to that of the other member of said pair.

7. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 6, comprising operating handles projecting laterally of each of two opposed edges of the playing surface for use by respective players.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the dummies are rotatably mounted to rotate about an axis transverse to the playing surface.

9. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 8, wherein the dummies are provided with a striking member immediately above the playing surface and radially spaced from the said axis of rotation.

10. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 8 or Claim 9, wherein a rotary drive member is associated with each carriage member and is connected to rotate those dummies carried by said carriage member.

11. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 10, wherein the rotary drive member is a rotatable drive spindle, each dummy is mounted on a rotatable player support spindle and a respective line is wound at least full turn about each player support spindle and is attached to the drive spindle and/or coiled thereon to be simultaneously wound thereon and unwound therefrom upon rotation of the drive spindle in either sense to produce rotation of the dummy upon rotation of the drive spindle.

12. Table ball game apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.