Get x404 in your RSS reader
x404
Mercedes Cricket
Thursday, 26 May 2011 08:06 | 
Written by Heather Kay | 
| 
| 
On a long motorway journey with your family? Kids getting restless, and fed up with their electronic playthings? Why not play Mercedes Cricket to while away the time?
The game is based on Pub Cricket, where players spot pub signs and assign points according to how many legs the signs have on them. For example, the Hare and Tortoise would score eight, while the John Bull would score only two. The idea is to keep the kids occupied, helping them with simple maths, memory and observation skills.
The Mercedes Cricket variation — any make will do, but you need to adjust the rules and scoring accordingly — was born because it struck me that almost every Mercedes was painted silver. Mercedes cars, SUVs and minibuses are also more common on motorway journeys than pubs.
The rules are pretty simple.
- All Mercedes cars, SUVs and minibuses (the Vito model, specifically) score points. The vehicles can be passing your car, on the other carriageway, on overbridges, even private drives, at the side of the road, and the back of recovery lorries.
- Points are assigned according to the colour. Silver cars only score one point, unless they are the smaller A-class, which scores a half point. A Mercedes of any colour other than silver scores double, so a blue one would be two points, or one point for an A-class. (I created the A-class rule because I didn't deem them "proper" Mercedes!)
- SUVs and minibuses score double by default. This means that you get two points for a silver Vito or G- or M-class, and double again if they are any colour other than silver.
- The driver is generally nominated as umpire, because their attention is on controlling the car. This doesn't stop the umpire from taking part, though. The umpire decides when the game begins and finishes. This could be, for example, at the point of joining and leaving the motorway.
- As in all good games, the umpire's decision is final and no returns.
- The winner is the participant with the highest score. This means the skills of observation and identification are paramount, because being able to spot a car your opponents haven't seen could mean a winning score.
The game doesn't have to be based on Mercedes vehicles. You could choose BMW, Jaguar, even the 'umble Ford, although you need to adjust the rules to suit. Does a Mini One count as a BMW, and if so is it a 1-series or its own class? In the BMW variant, a 1-series counts half a point, so would the Mini be the same? BMW also make motorcycles, which could muddy the waters further unless you adjust the rules to include only four-wheeled vehicles.
The same thorny issues could strike the pedantic Mercedes spotter. Smart cars and Chrysler Crossfires could be deemed part of the Mercedes family. In that case, the Crossfires count on colour alone, while the Smarts have to be judged on panel colour, not the safety frame. My preference would be to restrict the game to badged vehicles only, so such complications can be avoided.
Above all, remember this is just a bit of fun to while away tedious journeys. If tempers get frayed, you'll have to figure out something else!
They are seen as such by many Crossfire owners both here and in the USA. They are re-engineered SLK 320s. There is a keenness amongst owners in this country (and, I suspect the USA)here to link the car with Mercedes. I know a few people who have rebadged their Crossfires with Mercedes badges and logos (at times at great expense - those AMG SRT6 badges aren’t cheap).
I would argue that the Crossfire, beaches of its relative rarity in this country, is worth more points than a Mercedes is in this game.
For the younger people: pick a colour, get your opponent(s) to pick, then count, game on
| Next > |
|---|
Last Updated (Thursday, 26 May 2011 08:15)
