Description

This is a rare dexterity-based game published in Scotland in the mid-1970s and themed on the discovery of North Sea oil.

A raised map of Scotland and the UK-side of the North Sea is mounted inside the game box. Four wooden poles, 6.75 inches long and with horizontal holes drilled through near the top, are placed into holes on the corners where wooden feet support the board.

On each of the east and west sides, a string is run from a central hook (metal mounted on a wooden ball and plastic base with holes for the string) up to one of the corner poles, through a blue plastic bead, across to the other pole on the same side, and then back down to the hook.

Six wooden cylinders, each with a letter on top and horizontal openings near the top, are set into holes in the map of Scotland. The players must manipulate the beads so that the hook catches a cylinder, lifts it up, and then moves it over and into its corresponding hole in the North Sea (e.g. the N cylinder goes into the Ninian field).

The player who successfully moves all the pegs in the fastest time wins. The rules suggest the game can be made even more challenging by having players work in teams, with each manipulating one side of the hook.

While the game is undated, it is likely 1976-77, since the latest oil field named on the map is the Argyll, discovered in 1975.