FORGET your Grand Theft Autos or your Donkey Kongs. For thrills and excitement, you can't beat Skitter Scatter or Queenie Queenie.

Playground games beat the computer variety hands down, according to Barbara Pettitt.

Barbara, who lives in the Walmgate area of York, was responding to the Diary's appeal last week for memories of traditional schoolyard pastimes.

A one-time Fishergate School pupil, she is secretary of the Class Of '46 reunion group. "We used to do all sorts of daft things," she said.

Among them were:

Wibble Wobble, Jelly On A Plate. A skipping game. The girls at either end of the rope twirl it faster and faster while the skipper jumps to keep up. The one who stays skipping longest is the winner.

Was 68-year-old Mrs Pettitt a demon skipper? "I was in my time. I still do it occasionally."

Skitter Scatter What Is The Matter: One child has a ball and stands next to the "base", which could be a tree trunk or other landmark.

After shouting "skitter scatter, what is the matter" the other children run off to hide. The child who is "it" then goes after them and tries to hit them with the ball. Those hiding try to make it back, and if they reach base they shout "Billy-off one, two, three".

"It was a game you could do anywhere."

Queenie, Queenie. Nothing to do with Camilla's next mother-in-law, this was another ball game. The child with the ball stood a few yards in front of a line of children with his back to them. He then threw the ball over his shoulder and one of the line-up caught it.

If the child who was "it" guessed who had the ball, that child became "it"; if the child with the ball was able to reach him first, he had won.

Happy days. Any more examples?

JOHN Barry received the Academy Fellowship at the Baftas at the weekend for his lifetime contribution to cinema.

The York lad has gone a long way since performing at his dad's place, the Rialto, in the Sixties.

But the Oscar-winning Bond composer is none too impressed with film music today.

"The composers seem to ignore what's going on on screen... The scores are like a filler," he told the Guardian. He went on to vote Sean Connery the best Bond, rating Roger Moore "good", Pierce Brosnan "fine" and George Lazenby... "well we don't talk about that".

Mr Barry, 71, finds his childhood is now playing on his mind. "My father had eight movie-theatres in the north of England. I remember his taking me to the Rialto in York when I was about three or four.

"I was taken to the back and I saw a big black and white mouse on the screen - and there was all this wonderful music and people were going crazy. I forget what I did last week but I remember this so vividly."

COULD TV beckon for two of Radio York's most popular presenters? It should, according to book-plugging author Andrew Collins who was recently interviewed by Jules Bellerby and Julia Booth.

"I compared 80s hair crimes with husband-and-wife team Julia and Jules on Radio York," wrote Andrew in the Guardian, "a Richard and Judy in the making surely."

What a compliment. We think...

Updated: 09:09 Tuesday, February 15, 2005