KNUR AND SPELL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 8

KNUR AND SPELL

- 1 '" AN ANCIENT GAME. ' 'Did-you "ever see the pitman play at knur 'and 'spell? Likely enough, you iigver\eyen heard of it, yet it is an oldestablished gamo among the miners of the jSioi'tli and Midlands, and you maj eee it'.'in. the South Yorkshiro colliery districts holding 'tho place among the miners that goli holds in other circles. Knur and spell, indeed, has some resemblance to golf in that it is played .with a club and a ball. The clun ie a 6haft oi' willow with a flattened head of bpechwood, and the ball is a "pottie," t. china ball very like a large-sized warble. The pottie is known ai» the •"knur." ■There are two methods of atriking the, knur: In_:Yorkshire a contrivance suno thing like'tllo children^' game of bat-' trap-and-ball' is used. The player touches-'a spring, so that the pottie is > released-and ilies up into the air. He then hits it with a mighty swipe just as it is falling, Thib is ".known aj "spring tipping" and is the original way' ti playing knur and spell. But in Lancashire tne style of play adopted if> "pin tipping," In this the ball is suspended in a luop from the arm of what looks like a miniature gallows. The player takes his stance opposite this ami addresses tin. "knur" very much as a golfer address his ball. When he hits it the knur flies out of the loop at a terrific speed—and that is- ail thero teems to be 111 knur and spell. In the colliery districts there are champion knur and spell players. Favourite clubs are handed down from father to son. Challenges are thrown out and accepted, and matches aro ndvertised in the local papers. Great crowds Hock to these Saturday contests, bets are mado, and champion players are heroes little below international centre forwards in the world of football. For tho man who can make a drive of 301) yards is a postmaster of the gamo and his prowess will bo lauded in every clubhouse through the countryside.—l'., in the "Dailv Hail."