Pintle, subs. (Lancing).—(1) A form of cricket played with a bat narrowed at both sides, a soft ball, and a stone wicket in a pit. Also (2) = the bat used in the game. Hence PINTLE-SLINGER = a fast bowler.
Pitch-up, subs. (Winchester).—One’s home circle; a group; a crowd; a set of chums. Hence TO PITCH UP WITH = to associate with.
Place, subs. (Stonyhurst).—A room: generic: as study-PLACE, shoe-PLACE, tailor’s PLACE, washing-PLACE, Dick’s PLACE, stranger’s PLACE ( = parlour).
1891. John Gerard, S.J., Stonyhurst College. This evidently comes from St. Omers, in which district, we are told, the word is still employed in the same promiscuous way.
To run for a place, verb. phr. (Winchester).—See quot.
1881. Felstedian, Nov., p. 75, “A Day’s Fagging at Winchester.” My next duty is what is called “running for a PLACE.” There are (or were) six cricket pitches on “turf,” and any præfect has a right to one of these all day (a bad arrangement, which I hope is altered now, as fellows with no idea of cricket could thus keep much better players off all day) provided he can get a stick with his name on, stuck in the ground by his fag—the half-dozen out of the fifteen or twenty fags running, who get their præfect’s sticks stuck in first, claiming the place for him. It was the same sort of thing, as if the door from the “underground” was opened about 6.30, and some twenty fellows rushed out early in the morning to try and get pitches.
Plain-ruled, subs. (Harrow).—The paper usually used for exercises, sixteen lines to a page.
Planks (The), subs. (Rugby).—See quot.
1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, viii. The river Avon at Rugby is ... a capital river for bathing, as it has many nice small pools and several good reaches for swimming, all within about a mile of one another, and at an easy twenty minutes’ walk from the School. This mile of water is rented, or used to be rented, for bathing purposes by the Trustees of the School, for the boys. The footpath to Brownsover crosses the river by THE PLANKS, a curious old single-plank bridge running for fifty or sixty yards into the flat meadows on each side of the river—for in the winter there are frequent floods. Above THE PLANKS were the bathing-places for the smaller boys; Sleath’s, the first bathing-place, where all new boys had to begin, until they had proved to the bathing men (three steady individuals, who were paid to attend daily through the summer to prevent accidents) that they could swim pretty decently, when they were allowed to go on to Anstey’s, about one hundred and fifty yards below. Here there was a hole about six feet deep and twelve feet across, over which the puffing urchins struggled to the opposite side, and thought no small beer of themselves for having been out of their depths. Below THE PLANKS came larger and deeper holes, the first of which was Wratislaw’s, and the last Swift’s, a famous hole, ten or twelve feet deep in parts, and thirty yards across, from which there was a fine swimming reach right down to the Mill. Swift’s was reserved for the sixth and fifth forms, and had a spring-board and two sets of steps; the others had one set of steps each, and were used indifferently by all the lower boys, though each house addicted itself more to one hole than to another. The School-house at this time affected Wratislaw’s hole, and Tom and East, who had learnt to swim like fishes, were to be found there as regular as the clock through the summer, always twice, and often three times a day.
Plant, subs. (Winchester).—A blow with a football. Also as verb.