What is slyde groat and was it illegal in 1632?

[Duodecem]

I have found a reference to my ancestor Thomas Toft in the Norwich mayoralty record of 1632-1635:

 Thomas Toft did this day Informe upon othe that about halfe a yeare since he was in the howse of John Wright in St Clements parishe in this City and did see diverse parishioners and Citizens drinkinge there That is to say John Everard the elder & James Gislynge And before that did see the same persons drinkinge & playinge at slyde groate in the said howse.

It sounds like it might be early shove-halfpenny, but does this refer to an illegal drinking & gambling den? Was my ancestor a killjoy or an upstanding citizen?

[Ruskie]

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/542227/shuffleboard

[stanmapstone]

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shove_ha%27penny

Stan

[stanmapstone]

SHOVE-GROAT. Slide-thrift, or shove-groat, is one of the games prohibited by statute, 33 Henry VIII.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0nby/
Stan

[Duodecem]

Thanks for your help , I didn't realise HenryVIII objected to gambling. So, if it the game was illegal under HenryVIII, would it  still have been on the statute book under CharlesI?
I thought the problem may have been to do with unlicensed premises and a public nuisance. Thomas had a young family in St Clements at the time.
It sounds serious since he swore under oath -what would the penalties have been do you think?
I also looked up groats -which I thought were medieval currency and worthless-apparently they were worth 4d and are still officially legal tender because they are included in the Maundy money, but the silver content is worth much more than their face value.
If the game involved gambling with actual groats it would be fairly serious, though one of the links suggests they used tokens.

[sstarr2008]

Gaming was made illegal to encourage men to practice their archery instead of wasting their time with other games. The fines were only in pennies and seemingly only applied to the poor, so no change there then

[Duodecem]

I've just been searching further into the life of Thomas Toft and I have discovered, thanks to the clergydatabase.org.uk, that he was ordained a priest in 1633 and later became rector of St Michael at Plea in Norwich.
So- presumably he felt he was doing his pastoral duty.

[Maiden Stone]

Thanks for your help , I didn't realise HenryVIII objected to gambling. So, if it the game was illegal under HenryVIII, would it  still have been on the statute book under CharlesI?

An Act remains on the statue book until it's repealed.
A lad with the same name as my GGF, in the same small town (so it might have been him), was charged with playing a gambling game in the street on a Sunday in late 19thC. Lads in Preston got into trouble with police in mid 19thC for playing football in the street on Sunday.