Hob-in-the-Hall
An old game mentioned by Wycherley (Plain Dealer, 1677).
Hockerty Cokerty
The same game as “[Cockerty-hooie].”
Hockey
This game is played with a solid indiarubber ball from two to two and a half inches in diameter. The players each have a bent or hooked stick or “hockey.” They take opposite sides. The object of the game is for each side to drive the ball through their opponents’ goal. The goals are each marked by two poles standing about eight to ten feet apart, and boundaries are marked at the sides. The ball is placed in the middle of the ground. It is started by two players who stand opposite each other, the ball lying between their two sticks. They first touch the ground with their hockey-sticks, then they touch or strike their opponents’ stick. This is repeated three times. At the third stroke they both try to hit the ball away. The ball may only be played by a hockey-stick, and a goal is gained when the ball is played between the posts by the opposing party.—Barnes (A. B. Gomme).
(b) In Ross and Stead’s Holderness Glossary this game is described under the name of “Shinnup.” Robinson (Mid Yorkshire Glossary) gives it under “[Shinnops],” a youth’s game with a ball and stick, heavy at the striking end, the player manœuvring to get as many strokes as possible and to drive the ball distances. “Shinnoping” is also used for the game in operation. “Jowling,” or “[Jowls],” is given in Robinson’s Whitby Glossary, as a game played much the same as “Hockey.” “[Baddin]” is the name given to it in Holland’s Cheshire Glossary. Another name is “[Doddart]” (Brockett, North Country Words).
(c) An old custom in vogue in bygone days was Rotherham Fair, or what was called “Whipping Toms,” which took place in the Newarkes every Shrove Tuesday. So soon as the pancake bell rang men and boys assembled with sticks having a knob or hook at the end. A wooden ball was thrown down, and two parties engaged in striving which could get the ball by striking it with their sticks to one end of the Newarke first—those who did so were the victors. This game was called “[Shinney],” or “Hockey.” About one o’clock the Whipping Toms appeared on the scene of action. These were three men clad in blue smock frocks, with very long waggon whips, who were accompanied by three men with small bells. They commenced driving the men and boys out of the Newarkes. It was very dangerous sometimes; they would lash the whip in such a manner round the legs of those they were pursuing as to throw them down, which produced laughter and shouting. Some would stop, and turn to the whipper and say, “Let’s have a pennyworth,” and he would guard and parry off the lashes with his shinney stick. When the whipper was successful in lashing him he demanded his penny, and continued lashing until he paid. This was continued until five o’clock, then the game terminated. This was suppressed, I believe, in 1847. At that period it was a prevalent idea that it could not be abolished, as it was connected with an “old charter.” It is believed in the town that this custom was to commemorate the driving out of the Danes from the Newarkes at the time they besieged Leicester.—Leicester (Robert Hazlewood).
See “[Bandy],” “[Camp],” “[Football],” “[Hood],” “[Hurling].”