Pooltella

Pooltella cards by John Waddington Ltd, “the cards that simplify football pool forecasts ... by taking all that is tedious out of coupon filling”, from a range of popular party games produced in the mid-1930s. The game is mentioned in Hamley's toy catalogue of 1937. Price one shilling. The inventor did not claim that its use would bring you a fortune. See the Instructions►

Above: the party game of Pooltella by John Waddington Ltd, mid-1930s, contains 52 indication cards plus an index card and instructions booklet in a tuck box. The fundamental basis of Pooltella is that there are 27 different ways in which the three results 1, 2 and X can be combined. These are represented by the 26 lleters of the alphabet and the dypthong Æ. Instructions booklet courtesy Rex Pitts.

By Matt Probert

Member since March 02, 2012

View Articles

I have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.

Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.

Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.

I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.