After helming her fifth British and World Marbles Championships, Julia McCarthy-Fox is packing up the little glass balls for another year.
The annual event – held every Good Friday in an English pub car park – showcases a "very clever" sport that resembles snooker, she tells Emile Donovan.
New Zealander Julia McCarthy-Fox has run the British and World Marbles Championship since 2019. Photo: Jordan Mansfield
The first-ever marbles game is believed to have taken place back in 1588 in the town of Crawley where the tournament is still held, says McCarthy-Fox, who lives in Te Awamutu.
"There were apparently two young men fighting over a young lady and they were competing for her hand in various sports. Everything that they competed in they drew. Then somebody came up with a marbles game that had to have a winner. They played marbles and somebody won. It's just a nice story really so we just stick with it because no one's come up with a better one."
Marbles is a very inclusive sport, she says, where it makes no difference if you're "male or female, fat or thin, tall or short".
One German competitor this year had "quite serious" visual impairment, she says, and was guided on where to shoot his marbles by another person.
"Somebody made sure that he was in the right place on the ring because he obviously couldn't see clearly for himself what he was aiming for. He was knocking marbles out like a good'un."
With just 11 international teams of six players competing, this year's British and World Marbles Championships was "quite a small tournament", McCarthy-Fox says.
In each match, two teams face off across a raised six-foot concrete ring sprinkled with a light scattering of sand.
Forty-nine glass marbles are placed in a pack at the centre of the ring and members of each team take turns shooting 'tolleys' – individual competitive marbles – from the edge.
The aim of a marbles game is to separate each glass marble from the pack one at a time and then pick them off, McCarthy-Fox says. The first team to collect 25 marbles are the winners.
A competitor in the British and World Marbles Championship Photo: British and World Marbles Championship / Facebook
Skilled marbles players can aim and shoot their 'tolley' with great precision, McCarthy-Fox says.
"As soon as their marble hits it, it will stop dead and spin and be in position for the next shot."
'Tolleys' can be up to 3/4 inch in diameter and usually made of glass, she says, but can be made of anything except steel.
After a suspiciously heavy marble used last year caused a "huge big row", McCarthy-Fox enforced a weight limit at the 2024 event.
"One team complained very belatedly – 10 months after last year's tournament – that one player in a German team had been playing with a ball bearing. It wasn't a ball bearing, it was just that he was playing better than they were ... It was a slightly heavier ruby gemstone marble, but it was perfectly legal. "
In 2019, McCarthy-Fox took over running the marbles tournament from her late husband who'd been its referee and 'face' since 1978.
When they met, she didn't know much about marbles but eventually became the event photographer and administrator.
"This year, I was very proud of myself, I refereed every single match and I loved it."
Now, McCarthy-Fox's expertise in competitive marbles takes her all over the world.
"Two years ago we were sent to a junior tournament in New Jersey to do a report on it for the Japan Marbles Association… who's gonna say no if someone asks you if you'd like to do that?"
