I have been tossing in my flat since Lockdown started but it is really not the same.
Luckily when it suddenly started I already had some tables and chairs and even a video camera which I had thought might come in handy for solo work. So I spent a bit of time setting tape between two tables to create the fault line and put a chair on top of each with another line of tape for the hand line. While I was practicing with the camera my phone rang with a text.
It was Colonel Peppar. Said she would Skype me. I ran back into the bedroom and put my clothes on, didn't want her to see me standing round the flat in my kit. She sounded hoarse. "Jack, you ok? This is terrible, what on earth are they thinking of? I guess it's all cancelled now. Until, I don't know when. What are we going to do?" "It's ok Col," I said. Didn't really know what to say and it sounded like old cliches. "They were always going to do this. Everyone's so scared. They all want to go into hiding till it's all over. No one is thinking, just gut reactions. We'll find a way."
Really I wanted her to say, I'll come over to your flat. I could do with seeing her. She has stayed here a couple of times though we have never really been that close, but I could do with her presence right now. But right now would be illegal and no one really knew how law enforcement would proceed if we broke the rules.
So anyway we didn't really come to any conclusions and I got changed again and went back to the apparatus. It took me ages to choose a coin and eventually came up with a silver Victorian halfcrown dated 1877 which my aunt had given me as a lucky charm when I was a boy. I figured it was getting to be a time when we would all need a bit of extra luck.
Firstly it was hard as I wanted to both toss and call and the techniques are rather different. Also I quickly learnt that I need to bring in the bathmat to stop the danger of ring bounce and also to avoid damaging the coin face. Tossed some squibs for warmup and a couple of chuckers but it was hard to call as I knew what I was tossing for. So I just concentrated on the throw. Ten sets of ten heads scored 62% and then for tails managed 59%. Luckily the bathmat did not give rise to any cleets. Then in an effort to manage the other part I tried selecting video records randomly and trying to call them.
Soon discovered that 24 frames a second is only ok for squibs. Anything else has too high a spin rate. In theory you should be able to see up to about 10 rps on video but in reality there is way too much strobing. The couple of thunderballs I had produced were just blurs on the screen. So I did a bit of online searching. The only videos I knew of were of the World Championships which have been recorded since 1968. The old ones a bit grainy. And the clubs in the UK have not graduated to online material, maybe they will do so a bit more now they have the necessity. So I was a bit baffled until I had the brainwave of typing in Spincraft, the American name and also I remembered that in Australia it is called CoinCall. Soon had plenty of links that kept me busy for a couple of days.
When I spoke to Colonel she reminded me that EH Jones had been to America and had played in competitions in New Orleans, Rio and Webster Springs. She knew a lot about Spincraft conventions and even knew their variations on the rules, particularly the side games played by Squawkers who in America are called Kibitzes. We did a bit of research and discovered that you can play online where it is referred to as just Spin. But in those games you can only be the caller and it is hard to judge if the game is fair. They do have a live tosser but under their Lockdown rules there are no Grockles which takes away much of the oversight not to mention excitement of the game. So we have not yet worked out the best way of doing it. I did try the online games but they are a bit random and I am currently down £1700. Haven't persuaded anyone else to take part, they seem to have found other things to do. Shame. Hoping to start my own YouTube channel to explain Heads and Tails to a new audience and give out tips on tossing and calling. In the meantime I am honing my craft and studying the technique of three times World Champion Sir Don Ditchling.
Jack Thorneycroft