Quoits, that ageless game of throwing something round (and sometimes heavy) for distance and/or accuracy, appears but once in our text.  In the middle of the spider attack in Mirkwood when the dwarves are endangered and Bilbo reaches for a stone to throw, our narrator interrupts his narrative.  He takes a moment during this scene of high tension to list Bilbo’s childhood and adulthood pastimes.

• 08.092   and even grown-up he had still spent a deal of his time at quoits,

“Quoits” helps break the tension of the scene into child-sized portions – the game itself is relaxing and fun.  Quoits was played in the Shire at the end of the Third Age and Quoits Associations can be found in Britain and North America in the beginning of the third millennium of the Common Era.  Since it is a game of antiquity, I believe that it contributes to the old-fashioned or even parochial setting of the Shire.  Finally, say it aloud.  “Quoits” is a very funny word.