Trumpet Major

Note: I actually knew this game described as both Trumpet Major and as
Sergeant Major. However David Partlett describes a related, but
different, game as Sergeant Major in The Penguin Book of Card Games
(1978), so I've called this game Trumpet Major. I saw it in Dorset,
at school, in the mid 1970s; note that as well as the obvious play
on "trump" in the title, The Trumpet Major is a novel by the Dorset
author Thomas Hardy (which we read at school).

Where there may have been very slight variations in play, or in my
recollection thereof, I have fixed on an option. The essential
details are, I believe, definite (for that time and place) however.

Game family: whist

Number of players: 3

Deck: Standard 52 card deck, with usual ranking (A-K-Q-J-10-etc.)

Play:

An initial dealer is chosen by any preferred means. The deal rotates to
the left after every hand.

The dealer deals 16 cards to each player, leaving four cards in a widow.
(Note that we didn't actually use that term, but it is quite appropriate.)

A taking of cards occurs at this point. In the first hand this does not
occur, and it depends on the results of the previous hand. It is
described later below.

The dealer then chooses trumps, then picks up the widow, adds it to his
hand, and then discards four cards. The player to the dealer's left
leads to the first trick (play is clockwise as usual).

Sixteen tricks are then played, with usual whist rules including that
you must follow suit, but may play any card of the suit led that you
have, or if you have none, any card of any other suit. The trick is
won by the highest trump, if any, or the highest card of the suit led
otherwise. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

If any player takes 13 tricks, he wins the game. (Note that in practice
only the dealer, who chooses trumps, is likely to achieve this.)

Otherwise each player notes how many tricks he is above or below his
target number of tricks. This is 8 for the dealer, 5 for the player
to the dealer's left, and 3 for the player to the dealer's right.
These results are used in the taking of cards.

At the taking of cards, if all players exactly achieved their target
then no cards are taken.

If one player was above his target, and one player was below his
target, the the player who was above his target gives the player who
was below his target a number of cards equal to that difference. That
player must return an equal number of cards. These must be of the
same suits as the cards passed, and be the highest cards that the
player has in those suits, including the passed cards. If a player
is passed two or more cards in the same suit he must pass that many
highest cards in that suit.

If one player is above his target, and two players are below their
targets then the one player passes cards to both players, equal in
number to the number that the player was down on his target. The
successful player passes cards to both unsuccessful players before
receiving returned cards from either.

If one player is below his target, and two players are above their
targets then the two players each pass cards to the one player, equal
to the number of cards that player was over his target. One player
passes cards and has cards returned, and then the other player does so.
The order is first the player taking the most cards, or if that is
equal, first the player with the highest target to achieve.

Recorded by Christopher Dearlove christopher.dearlove@gmail.com
Comments welcome.