Kingy, Photo Cards and NYABS

From Alasdair Drysdale:

In the late 1950s three major pastimes gained break-time ascendancy at MEPS and held the male pupils in thrall.

Kingtip, known generally as Kingy, was the first to be established. Players gathered on the football pitch and huddled in a circle to decide who was “It”. Whoever was “It” had the tennis ball and chased after the others, trying to hit them. When “It” had struck someone, there were then two “Its”.... but the game is more complicated than this.

Next came the collecting of aircraft photo cards, with information on the reverse sides. Post Toasties produced a glossy rectangular set of 50 and Will’s Gold Flake sweet cigarette packets included a large square set of 40. This led to some serious trading during break-times.

Then came the biggest craze.... nyabs. Nyabs was the MEPS name for marbles. This game involved a small cup-sized hole in the ground. A player started from behind a line typically a couple of yards away and if he got his marble into the hole he could flick it from there to hit one of his opponents’ marbles - and keep it. This is the simple game, but at MEPS it was.... more complicated.

Read all about the games in Alasdair's article on the MEPS website - link to .pdf here.