childhood games

I haven't heard that one anniesgrannie , but I remember 'barleys" which meant that you had to cross your fingers with this one. It meant that you were exempt or 'safe'.

We used to cross our fingers and say 'vienites' so similar

Fainites was used a lot during run outs and hide and seek.

That is a totally new word for me - but according to Wikipedia it is a south to middle England term so clearly didn't get as far as north of the border! I love learning a new word so now have to find an excuse to use it.

We used to cross our fingers and say "skinch". It meant a sort of time out during the game, so you couldn't be caught. I've never heard of the others.

this is a better definition

Not heard of any of those expressions - the only one I can think of was "exies" which together with crossed fingers, gave some time out - I always assumed it meant excuse me but who knows? Only worked if your friends liked you though and wanted to give you another chance.

I still have a copy of the Opie's book The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. It was written 50 years ago. I knew the games and words they talked about, but it was disappearing when my children played, and I think has altogether gone now what with electronic games

We used to use "fainites". Never seen the word written down before, looks odd! When we lived in Kent that was. Will try and remember what we used in Derby, currently escapes me.

"skinch" like Hildajenni. In Northumberland.

I remember saying 'fainites', although I sort of imagined I was saying 'Feign knights' meaning 'pretend we're knights', I don't know why. I've always lived down south.

I'm now quite 'worried' that I was saying 'veinites' when I should have been saying 'fainites'

I've never heard of these. I had a nomadic childhood and everywhere we went the familiar games had different names and rules. The strangest place was Stockport where I felt utterly alien as the children spoke a completely different language.

JoMarie where I come from 'exies' was a ball game which involved throwing a ball against a wall and catching it while standing in 6 different positions. One was throwing the ball from behind your back (backsies.)
If you were good at that you progressed to '2 ball exies'.

We said barley. As I seem to have said before!

Barlow for me! Yes, Ana we had a similar thread last year.