National Quoits Championship : 14th July, 2012 - 15th July, 2012

Beamish Museum will be holding the National Quoits Championship on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th July 2012.

Between twenty and fifty competitors from The Quoits Association will play in the traditional game in the Pit Village here at Beamish.

The sporting event, which is similar to the game hoopla, has been associated with mining communities for many years.

Quoits has been described as a developed form of horseshoe pitching and the name originates from Ancient Greece. Similar to the Greek discus, Quoits was brought to Britain by the Romans.

The English variant of the game in split into three versions, these are The Northern Game, The Long Game and The East Anglian Game.

The National Quoits Association, which was formed in 1986, will be playing The Northern Game. This variation uses specific rules which were published in 1881 and includes stakes which are placed eleven yards apart in three square feet of clay.

Take a look at some photos from last year's event: