See “[Kirk the Gussie].”
Span Counter
A common game among boys. “You shall finde me playing at Span Counter.”—Dekker’s Northward Hoe. Toone, Etymological Dictionary, mentions this as a juvenile game played with counters.
Boys shall not play
At span counter or blow pipe.
—Donne (Satire iv.).
Dr. Grosart, in noting this passage, says, “I rather think the game is still played by boys when they directly, or by rebound, endeavour to play their button or marble into a hole.” Strutt briefly notes the game as being similar to “Boss Out.”—Sports, p. 384. Halliwell (Dictionary) simply gives the quotation from Donne’s Poems, p. 131, mentioning the game.
See “[Boss Out].”
Spang and Purley
A mode resorted to by boys of measuring distances, particularly at the game of [marbles]. It means a space and something more.—Brockett’s North Country Words.