> as lemmas

1852 Househ. Words 23 Oct. 139 The mysterious game of Nurr and spell.

1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 98 Knor or Gnar, a small ball of lignum vitæ for playing at cricket with, or a similar game which is called ‘Spell and Knor’.

1868 Morning Star 10 Feb. A well-known Yorkshire game known as ‘knurr and spell’, in which an ordinary stick some two feet in length has a solid piece of wood 3 in. long and 2 in. in depth screwed on for the purpose of striking a marble.

1872 R. C. A. Prior Notes on Croquet 15 Bandy is the same game as hockey, and is played..with a wooden ball that..is cut from a blackthorn bush and called a ‘knurr’.

1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Knur, a hard wooden ball with which children play.

1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Nur, a small ball, such as that used in the game of hockey.

1967 Antique Finder Aug. 11/3 Knur and Spell. This Georgian tavern game must really be a forerunner of darts.

1972 Daily Tel. 14 Jan. (Colour Suppl.) 22/3 In fact Knur and Spell is simply a formalisation of something that every male person in the world must have done at some time throwing a ball or stone in the air and giving it a tremendous clout with a stick. How maddening when you miss! What a marvellous eye you feel you have when you do it fair and square! The Spell is the device that throws the ball (the Knur) into the air. It is an iron contraption that lies on the ground looking a bit like a rat trap; the framework holds a flat horizontal spring, held down by a catch. On the releasable end of the spring is a little cup containing the knur, a tiny white ball (porcelain, of all things), one inch across and weighing half an ounce. You stand about four feet away from the spell, armed with a ‘stick’, rather like a billiard cue with a hammer head (called the ‘pommel’). You tap the catch on the spell, the knur jumps up about four feet; the object is to hit it farther, over a fixed number of goes, than anyone else.

1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves (ed. 2) Gloss. 96 Spel-and-knor, the game of trap-stick.

a1809 T. Holcroft Memoirs (1816) I. 61 Spell and null, bandy, prison-bars, and other field games.

1816 Sporting Mag. 48 178 The games most common at Newmarket, were fives, spell and null, marbles, [and] chuck-farthing.

1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2)

1862 C. C. Robinson Dial. Leeds & Neighbourhood 338 Underneath, at the four corners, are ‘prods’ wherewith the ‘spell’ is fixed into the earth.

1868 Notes & Queries 4th Ser. I. 325.