Door 19 · Slingshot
Snag Toss: Day 19 of Sunburnt Santa
Fling snags (sausages) from the esky onto Dad's barbecue hotplate with a slingshot, while Dad keeps wheeling the barbie about and rolling it in at different heights. Bullseyes in a row build a combo, the last 10 seconds score double, and anything on the grass goes to the kelpie.
How to play Snag Toss
- Drag back, aim, let go: fling a snag from the esky onto the hotplate.
- Centre ring 300, middle 150, edge 50. On the grass scores 0 and the kelpie eats it.
- Dad keeps wheeling the barbie and rolls it in at different heights, from the grass to the top of the scaffold, so lead your throw. Bullseyes in a row build a combo; double points in the last 10 seconds.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Snag in the centre ring (bullseye) | 300 |
| Snag in the middle ring | 150 |
| Snag on the edge of the hotplate | 50 |
| Snag on the grass (the kelpie eats it) | 0 |
Bullseyes in a row build a combo: x2 from 3, up to x3 from 6. The middle ring keeps your combo going; the edge or the grass resets it. Everything scores double in the last 10 seconds, so a bullseye at x3 in the frenzy is 1,800. 60 seconds.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Only bullseyes build the combo, but a middle-ring snag doesn't break it. So when the barbie is on the move or up high, a safe throw at the middle of the plate is better than a risky one that might clip the edge or land on the grass.
- Dad rolls the barbie in from the right, parks it at one height for five to seven and a half seconds, then rolls it out. Fire as soon as it settles, and keep throwing at that height while you have the range; you can fling about three snags a second.
- Build your combo before the clock hits 10 seconds. The frenzy doubles everything, and arriving at x3 means every bullseye is worth 1,800 instead of 300. Early in the round the barbie is mostly on the grass; later it goes up on the scaffolds, so practise your high lobs.
The real story: the Aussie sausage sizzle
A snag is Australian for a sausage, and a barbie is a barbecue. Put them together on a hotplate for a crowd and you have a sausage sizzle, where the big decision, as the Museum of Australian Democracy puts it, is sauce and onions: a common enough question at any backyard barbecue [1].
The sizzle went public thanks to a piece of kit. As portable gas barbecues became popular in the 1980s, the community fundraising stall turned into the much-loved Aussie sausage sizzle [1]. Its most famous home is the polling place on election day, where the "democracy sausage" became such an institution that the Australian National Dictionary Centre named it word of the year in 2016 [1].
At Christmas the barbie is back in the backyard, and in Sunburnt Santa that means Dad in charge of the tongs, with a soft drink in the other hand. In Snag Toss he has had a few ideas about where the barbie should go, and the family's kelpie is very happy about that. More barbie words in our Aussie Christmas slang guide.
Read more: Aussie Christmas slang: a dictionary for visitors.
When it opens
Door 19 opens on day 19 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 19 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Bin Chicken Blitz, Seagull Showdown, Cocky Chaos.
Sources for the real story
- The sizzling history of the democracy sausage, Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House