A Knur and Spell Match

From the Cleckheaton and Spenborough Guardian, 20th August 1915.

KNUR AND SPELL.

About 2,000 spectators attended the Armytage Arms Grounds, Clifton, on Saturday afternoon, the attraction being a striking match between B. Wilkinson, Cleckheaton, and M. Oldham, Liversedge, who met to play 25 rises each, with ½oz. pot knurs, for £40.  Both men used the spell.  Wilkinson conceded five yards start, and after a very close measure proved the winner by 8ft. 3ins., with a hit which measured 9sc. 2 yds. 1ft. 6ins.  Oldham’s best attempt measured 8sc. 19yds. 2ft. 3ins., which included his start.

[This is nothing to do with the War, but I couldn't resist including it, because it is such a gem of local history.  Knurr and spell was played in the north of England, but especially in Yorkshire.  The knurr was a small ball, in this case 'pot' or ceramic, which was thrown up in the air from spring-loaded gadget, and then hit by the spell, a sort of bat.   (A very particular sort of bat, with a whippy metal section in the middle and a small hardwood striking end, in the ones I have seen.)  The idea is just to hit the knurr as far as possible, as you can tell from this account.   I suspect that there was betting involved, though of course it is not mentioned by the reporter (because it would be illegal). 

It is all in imperial measurements, of course.  The ½oz. knurr weighs about 15 g.  The length is measured in inches, feet, yards and (I assume) chains - all familiar to me from primary school, where we had to do sums involving all these measures (though I haven't seen the abbreviation 'sc.' for chain before).   There are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 22 yards in a chain.  And when I was 10, I would have been doing sums like the one involved here: 9sc. 2 yds. 1ft. 6ins.  -  8sc. 19yds. 2ft. 3ins.  But I can't get it to work out - the difference seems to me to be 14ft. 3ins., i.e. it's 2 yards adrift.  So maybe there's a misprint, or I wrote it down wrong, or I've misunderstood something or I can't do this kind of arithmetic any more or...... 

It does seems an odd way to play a match anyway - from 25 'rises' (i.e. hits) for each man, apparently only the longest counted.  And I don't know what 'both men used the spell' means - how else would they do it? ]