Reading YEP feature writer Oliver Cross’ highly interesting article which dealt mainly with the social and economic gap between the north and south, and certain old sports which are still played, surviving in the face of changing times, it took me back some 48 years. The main item that caught my eyes was his mention of Knurr and Spell, the old, definitely working class game ,played mainly in the north.. As is that other wonderful game, crown green bowls. Surviving better than the former but still under pressure for the same reasons. On Sunday mornings, not long after World War 2, groups of men could be seen walking past the Old Park side, Hunslet, rugby ground in the same direction carrying long sticks with small oblong pieces of wood attached on the ends, no bigger than the blade of a golf club. While other locals, heading in the same direction, with their whippets and greyhounds to chase a hare or rabbit for Sunday lunch, I was told these men were going to take part in the ancient game of Knurr and Spell. For me that brief reference to the game never arose again until in 1965, Halifax bowler Alf Milnes, captured the famous Talbot Bowls Handicap in Blackpool, and in the same week also became North of England Knurr and Spell champion, on the moors above his native Heptonstall. Around the same time after having one of my own best ever (six title) season in bowls, Alfie and I appeared on the old Friday night Yorksport TV programme, produce by Frank Kilbride. Alf was shown in action hitting himself to victory in what must be the most difficult of sports; while the renowned Alistair Senton and I played a few ends across the Chapelallerton green in front of the cameras, for which we both received the sum of £30. Don’t forget these were still days when amateurism was still to be preserved. The transmission however, our bowling in particular ,was hardly on screen long enough to be seen. Even so, I understand it was perhaps the first ever televised showing of the crown green game n Yorkshire. Alf was one of the most likeable persons one could ever meet; and I remember him mostly for his jaunty walk and the way he wore his cap, with shirt sleeves rolled up, showing muscular arms, a smile on his face, and a jocular remark never far away, especially if he was with his old workmate and sometimes opponent Herbert Gibson; another top Yorkshire bowler from nearby Hebden Bridge. But rounding off his piece the YEP man refers to a game in the south called Bat and Trap, very similar to the northern game with 27 teams, and goes on to say that if the rich, who would like to make everybody their obedient servants, can be curbed a little, the Old England we appreciate, held together by common purpose, a degree of social and geographic mobility, poor fashion sense and baffling archaic games might such as these might yet survive. We sincerely hope they do.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 23:42:49 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015