CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

21 (drinking game)

drinking game

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ4630979
Source-derived summary

21, Bagram, or Twenty Plus One is a drinking game. The game progresses by counting up from 1 to 21, with the player who calls "21" suffering a drinking penalty before the next round starts. The loser may add 1 new rule to the game, and starts the new round. The game was invented at the Swan and 3 cygnets in Durham City in 1997 by Alan Smith, Ian Crosby, Stuart Lockey, Kieran Walker, Paul Nicholson, Brian Griffen, Gavin Southwell, Mark Thompson, Stephen Rickaby and Andrew Barras

Rules

Players are arranged in a circle, facing inwards. The game begins with one player calling the direction of play by saying, "I propose a game of XXXX! To my left..." or "To my right..." followed by a sequential series of numbers beginning with one. Variations exist for the proposal of the game depending on personal rules; this is due to some variants calling for any person who says the number "21" to drink. For example:

"I propose a game of 21!"

"I propose a game of 20...22!"

"I propose a game of twenty plus one!"

"I propose a game of the unspeakable number!"

As the game progresses, each player in turn must recite one to four numbers, counting in sequence from where the previous player left off:

Saying one number (e.g. "one") passes the game to the next player in the circle in the initial direction.

Saying two numbers (e.g.

Editorial summary

“21 (drinking game)” enters the record as drinking game. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what drinking and game can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1997—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around drinking and game.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“21 (drinking game)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, drinking and game provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4630979. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “21 (drinking game)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 21 (drinking game) primary sources, 21 (drinking game) archive and drinking research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “21 (drinking game)”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 21 (drinking game)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.