Knurr and spell (also called northern spell, [1] nipsy or trap ball) is an old English game, once popular as a pub game.
Contents
Knurr and spell (also called northern spell, [1] nipsy or trap ball) is an old English game, once popular as a pub game.
The game originated in the moors of Yorkshire, in England, but then spread throughout the north of England. [2] It can be traced back to the beginning of the 14th century.[ citation needed ] It was especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, but was virtually unknown by the 21st century, [3] though there was a local revival in the 1970s. [4] As late as the 1930s exhibition games of knur and spell by veterans drew large crowds to the Rusland Valley in North Lancashire, according to the chronicles of the North-West Evening Mail , but even then it was regarded as an archaic game.
A man from Golcar, West Yorkshire was recorded in 1974 for the Survey of English Dialects discussing knurr and spell being played around the turn of the twentieth century. [5]
Knurr (from Middle English: knurre, knot) refers to a hardwood or pottery [4] ball, as could be made from a knot of wood. Spell (from Danish : spil, spindle) is the stick of wood used to strike it. [6]
In Yorkshire it is played with a levered wooden trap known as a spell, by means of which the knurr, about the size of a walnut, is thrown into the air. In Lancashire the knurr is suspended stationary from string. The knurr is struck by the player with the stick. The object of the game is to hit the knurr the greatest possible distance, either in one or several hits. [6] Each player competes as an individual, without interference, and any number can enter a competition. [2]
The stick is a bat consisting of two parts: a 4 feet (1.2 m) long stick made of ash or lancewood;[ citation needed ] and a pommel, a piece of very hard wood about 6 inches (150 mm) long, 4 inches (100 mm) wide and 1 inch (25 mm) thick. This was swung in both hands, although shorter bats for one hand were sometimes used. [2] [6] A successful hit drives the ball about 200 yards (180 m). The stroke is made by a full swing round the head, not unlike a drive in golf. [2]
Originally the ball was thrown into the air by striking a lever upon which it rested in the spell or trap, but in the later development of the game a spell or trap furnished with a spring was introduced, thus ensuring regularity in the height to which the knurr is tossed, somewhat after the manner of the shooter's clay pigeon. By means of a thumb screw, the player can adjust the spring of the spell or trap according to the velocity of release desired for the ball. [2] [6]
On a large moor, and where the game is general, the ground is marked out with wooden pins driven in every 20 yards (18 m). In matches each player supplies their own knurrs and spells and has five rises of the ball to a game. [2]
Shinty is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, and was even played in northern England into the second half of the 20th century and other areas in the world where Scottish Highlanders migrated.
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hancock.
The Yorkshire dialect is a dialect of English, or continuum of dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The dialect has roots in Old English and is influenced by Old Norse. The Yorkshire dialect has faded and faces extinction, but organisations such as The Yorkshire Dialect Society and the East Riding Dialect Society exist to promote its use.
A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making ground to avoid a run out, by holding the bat and touching the ground with it. The length of the bat may be no more than 38 inches (96.5 cm) and the width no more than 4.25 inches (10.8 cm). Its use is first mentioned in 1624. Since 1979, a law change has provided that cricket bats can only be made from wood.
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern bat, ball, and running games — stoolball, cricket and rounders — were developed from folk games in early Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe. Early forms of baseball had a number of names, including "base ball", "goal ball", "round ball", "fetch-catch", "stool ball", and, simply, "base". In at least one version of the game, teams pitched to themselves, runners went around the bases in the opposite direction of today's game, much like in the Nordic brännboll, and players could be put out by being hit with the ball. Just as now, in some versions a batter was called out after three strikes.
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than 2.75 inches (7.0 cm) in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches (1.067 m) in length. Although historically bats approaching 3 pounds (1.4 kg) were swung, today bats of 33 ounces (0.94 kg) are common, topping out at 34 ounces (0.96 kg) to 36 ounces (1.0 kg).
Bat and trap is an English bat-and-ball pub game. It is still played in Kent, and occasionally in Brighton. By the late 20th century it was usually only played on Good Friday in Brighton, on the park called The Level, which has an adjacent pub called The Bat and Ball, whose sign depicts the game. Brighton & Hove City Council started a Bat and Trap club based at The Level in 2013, as part of the Activities Plan associated with a £2.2m Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund-funded restoration of the park.
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in 2005 are playing their cricket in Division Two of the County Championship and Division One of the totesport League. They started the season at 12–1 to win the Division Two title. During the off season 9 players left.
Lancashire County Cricket Club played cricket in Division Two of the County Championship and Division One of the totesport League in the 2005 English cricket season. After their shock relegation last season, they were 11–10 favourites to win the Second Division of the Championship, and they managed this with seven wins and a total of 212 points. They also survived in Division One of the National League, beating Worcestershire Royals on the last matchday to stay up. Lancashire also qualified for the final of the Twenty20 Cup, but lost by seven wickets to Somerset Sabres.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 2005 were in the second division of both the County Championship and the totesport League. At 6–1 odds to win the Second Division of the County Championship, they were likely to struggle again – as they had done since they won the First Division championship in 2001.
Higham is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Dodworth ward of the Barnsley MBC.
Tip-cat is a pastime which consists of tapping a short billet of wood with a larger stick ; the shorter piece is tapered or sharpened on both ends so that it can be "tipped up" into the air when struck by the larger, at which point the player attempts to swing or hit it a distance with the larger stick while it is still in the air.
Barry Wood is an English former cricketer, who played 12 Test matches for the England cricket team as an opening batsman, as well as 13 One Day Internationals. He played first-class cricket for Yorkshire in 1964, for Lancashire from 1966 to 1979, and for Derbyshire from 1980 to 1983, where he was the captain for three seasons.
The 2006 English cricket season was the 107th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. It included home international series for England against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. England came off a winter with more Test losses than wins, for the first time since 2002-03, but still attained their best series result in India since 1985. The One Day International series against Pakistan and India both ended in losses.
Thomas Christopher Smith is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club. He had also been a member of the England Academy team. In 2008, he played for Leicestershire on loan because he was unable to break into Lancashire's first team. He is an all-rounder, bowling right-arm medium and batting left-handed. At the start of the 2009 season, Smith was promoted to open the batting, having previously batted in the lower order, and secured his place there. In 2011, the year Lancashire won the County Championship for the first time since 1950, Smith became the first Lancashire player to score a century and take four wickets in the same one-day match. In 2011/12 Smith played for the Matabeleland Tuskers in Zimbabwe as an overseas player in the domestic twenty20 competition.
Bat-and-ball games are field games played by two opposing teams. Action starts when the defending team throws a ball at a dedicated player of the attacking team, who tries to hit it with a bat and run between various safe areas in the field to score runs (points). The defending team can use the ball in various ways against the attacking team's players to force them off the field when they are not in safe zones, and thus prevent them from further scoring. The best known modern bat-and-ball games are cricket and baseball, with common roots in the 18th-century games played in England.
The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century. These matches have a long and proud history and are traditionally the hardest fought matches in the English first class game, with many dour draws recorded as both teams battled to avoid the ignominy of defeat.
The 2005 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy was the 4th Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, an English county cricket tournament, held between 3 May and 3 September 2005. The competition was contested by all 18 first-class counties, as well as 10 minor counties and the national teams of Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark, to make up a full 32-team tournament. The final was won by the Hampshire Hawks, who beat the Warwickshire Bears by 18 runs at Lord's on 3 September 2005.
The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy was a first-class cricket tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season, and the inaugural edition of the Bob Willis Trophy. It was separate from the County Championship, which was not held in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The eighteen county cricket teams were split into three regional groups of six, with the two group winners with the most points advancing to a final held at Lord's. The maximum number of overs bowled in a day was reduced from 96 to 90, and the team's first innings could be no longer than 120 overs.
