'52 Bonkers' or 'Tip/Kick the Can'?

nialldinho

Does anyone remember this from their childhood?

Here's a description of 52 Bonkers that I found on the interweb:


You need five or more players to play. One person is in "Den" and with
his/her back to the other players, counts to fifty-two. The other players
run off and hide.

When the person who is "on" has finished counting he/she turns round and
tries to find the others.* When he/she spots somebody, he/she runs back to
den and Shouts "52 Bonkers, I see (name). The named played tries to beat
the "0n"player back to den, and shouts "52 Bonkers Save my soul " if he/she
gets back their first.

If the last player "off" beats you to den, you are on again.* If you beat
him/ her to "den", the first person caught is "on".


I, for one, have never heard of this '52 Bonkers' but the game described above is what I knew as 'Tip the Can'. Simply replace "52 Bonkers" with "Tip the Can", "Den" with "Can", and "save my soul" with "I free me/all". And, of course, we didn't count to such a random number as 52!

Does it depend where you're from?

Was it just not called '52 Bonkers' in Dublin?

Or are they two separate games that are confusingly similar?!

nialldinho

Please ignore the first vote which went to '52 Bonkers (from Dublin)'. That was my vote and I clicked the wrong option!! Oops!

I obviously should have clicked 'Tip the Can (from Dublin)'.

c - 13

I'm from Waterford and in the area im from it was called 52 Bonkers or just 52 for short. I have no idea why they picked 52 either though.

I was only thinking about this the other day, my little sister came in and said she had been playing it. Nice to see that these days with all the technology and TV channels that some of the more "traditional" games havent been lost.

F*ck i sound old.

roberteboot

Great.Now everythings ruined.EVERYTHING.But it was definately kick the can.Anyone who says its not is probably a communist.

nialldinho

roberteboot wrote:

Great.Now everythings ruined.EVERYTHING.But it was definately kick the can.Anyone who says its not is probably a communist.

yes. tip or kick. works either way.

curliq

TIP the can. boo ya ka sha!
best game ever

iguana

In Limerick it was called either 45 or 40/40, depending on where in the city you were. I remember it was one where I lived and the other where my cousins were.

dearg_doom

Tip the can is the be-all and end-all of summers. Anyone who called it kick the can was slagged for life. And kicked.

52Bonkers sounds pretty **** too;)

angeldelight

I was in Monaghan and it was tip the pole! And yes I've heard all the sarky comments from Dublin friends already thanks!

Panserborn

We used to call it 40 /40 in Galway!

Zaph

Twas Kick the Can in Dublin in the mid-70s (God, I'm getting really old!). Never heard it called anything else.

D-Generate

Tip/Kick the Can in Cork also.

airetam_storm

Tip the can here, never even heard of 52 Bonkers until today :rolleyes:

Brock

it was 52 bonkers for me i am from dublin around dun laoghaire but like 5 mins away the kids played tip the can we even used to fight over the name
p.s i am not a communist i was just a kid

entropi

Kick the can , nothing else matters

roberteboot

Brock wrote:

it was 52 bonkers for me i am from dublin around dun laoghaire but like 5 mins away the kids played tip the can we even used to fight over the name
p.s i am not a communist i was just a kid

What a communist.

evad_lhorg

"tip the can I see John behind the car in the murphys drive-way"

john walks towards the can and shouts "tip the can I free me"

"whatre ya doin you were caught?!"


"no I wasnt I was at the front of the car so i was technically infront of the car"


kids are bent...

the game however is great fun.

Earthhorse

Tip the can, eighties, Dublin.

Did you not have to say "Tip the can" twice though?

As in, "Tip the can, tip the can, I see Earthhorse".

I might be making that up.

WellyJ

Earthhorse wrote:

Tip the can, eighties, Dublin.

Did you not have to say "Tip the can" twice though?

As in, "Tip the can, tip the can, I see Earthhorse".

I might be making that up.

I remember that definately, you had to say tip the can 2x or else it didnt count.

pickarooney

'tip the can' in my part of rural Kilkenny in the 80s, and the important phrase was 'tip the can, home free' after which no end of rows ensued.

spiderlegs

Oh yeah whoever said "tip the can I free all" was always the hero of that particular game.....but jesus the fights you'd have over it.

komodosp

I moved about the country a bit when I was younger and I have heard a number of different versions...

Twenty One - Leixlip (Co. Kildare, Dublin border)
Fifty Two Bonkers - Leixlip
Kick the Can - Not sure where this was... maybe Cork
Over The Rock - Cork
Forty Five - Limerick

The trouble with Over The Rock was that if *anyone* beat the person who was "On" (i.e. not just the last person) to the "Den", they could free everyone, including those still hiding... Everyone would come out and then the person would be On again, and have to count again... Very frustrating for the person who was On if there were loads of players, someone was bound to do it... Much better with 52 bonkers where only the last could "Save all souls" or at least if you weren't last, only the souls caught so far could be saved...

jencar01

I’m from Dublin and we always called it Kick the can…. Never heard the other names being used before.

Jimoslimos

Yeah Tip/kick the can for me also (from Dublin) and the "can" was usually a lamp-post

Stench Blossoms

Tip the can (from Dublin). I heard it being called 52 bonkers in Limerick when i was younger.

johnny_ultimate

Tip and / or kick a pole acting as a can here in Bray (not Dublin and don't let anyone tell you it is)

_blank_

Kick the Can - and I'm a proud communist.

'Kick the can, Kick the can, one, two, three, I see Paul in Kelly's garden behind the flower pot'.

Guess_Who

Pretty sure it was Tip/Kick the can 45 in Tallaght in the 80's. Not sure why we added 45 though