The New International Encyclopædia/Quoits

QUOITS (from OF. coiter, coitier, quoitier, to press, incite; probably from Lat. coactare, to constrain, frequentative of coagere, cogere, to urge, from co-, together + agere, to lead). A game played on a green at each end of which, 18 yards apart, a mark is placed. At this mark the quoits, iron concave rings 8 inches in diameter (of which the rim is from one to two inches in breadth), are pitched, alternately by two players of opposite sides, and so in rotation by any number of pairs forming the opposing sides. The game is won by the side which, in a given number of pitches, gets the greatest number of quoits nearest the marks or pins. Each player at each turn has two quoits. The sport is very common in Europe, and in America it is the subject of a national contest for the Bell Quoit Medal. The rules laid down in 1899 require the heads of the pins to be one inch above the ground into which they are driven, 18 yards apart, and the player to deliver his quoit from his hand with his first step. They leave the weight of the quoit unlimited, but restrict its external diameter to 8 inches. No quoit counts unless fairly delivered on the clay, free from the outer rim, and no quoit on its back counts, unless it holds clay, or is knocked out by another quoit. No quoit rolling onto clay counts unless it has first struck another quoit or the pin. In counting, the two quoits nearest to the pin count one point each; a ‘ringer,’ that is a quoit which has been pitched so that the pin shows through the open centre of the quoit, counts two points.