Dwile flonking

Dwile flonking at the Lewes Arms pub in Sussex

The English game of dwile flonking (also dwyle flunking) is an East Anglian pub game,[1] involving two teams of twelve players,[2] each taking a turn to dance around the other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked dwile (cloth) thrown by the non-dancing team.[3][4]

"Dwile" is a knitted floor cloth, from the Dutch dweil, meaning "mop",[5] with the same meaning in East Anglian dialect, and "flonk" is probably a corruption of flong, an old past tense of fling.[6]

  1. ^ Hough, Andrew (29 May 2010). "Dwile Flonking: council bans traditional pub sport under health and safety". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. ^ Edward Brooke-Hitching. Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling, and Other Forgotten Sports, p.12. Simon and Schuster, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4711-4899-6
  3. ^ Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports by Tony Collins, John Martin, Wray Vamplew, page 105
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference fox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "dwile", Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.), Oxford University Press, 2012, retrieved 14 August 2009 (subscription required)
  6. ^ The BBC provides photos of seasoned flonkers here [1] and here [2].