That Hook & Ring Thing

The Ding Tea that we go to every few days had this strange new thing on one of the tables.   They also have two different Jenga boards to play with, so they try to make it a fun environment.

This thing is clearly a game of some kind,  with scoring pegs at the top.  We asked two different people who work there what is called, and they both said, "the hook and ring game."

I had a vague feeling that I had seen something like it before.   Online searches showed a surprising range of different game by that name.  There are versions for one, two or four people.

Here is a large wall mounted one available on Etsy for bars or man caves.

Here's a Tiki Toss game on Amazon that comes in 12" and 5" versions

I found a quick video showing two players going as fast as possible  moving the scoring leg toward their opponent each time they hook the ring.

We tried about thirty times each and never scored.   The length of the string is just right to make sure that when you let it swing down in a simple pendulum motion,  the ring will go under the hook,  so actually hitting the target is not as easy as it looks.

I'm guessing that with the four player game,  the first player to get their peg into the middle space wins.  That's only three shots, four if the peg starts on the table.

This turned out to be an odd item with a lot more history than I was expecting. 

Christmas update: We stopped by after lunch, and I managed to hook the ring in just five tries.  To get behind the hook, it takes a bit of an arc, so aiming an inch or two to the left or right looks like a good plan of attack.