Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/193

 Strutt in his "Sports and Pastimes." The game has also been discussed in Notes and Queries. If the ball is struck so as to diverge too much either to the right or to the left of fixed marks, the player loses the number of his wide balls. These limits are agreed upon by the players before the game is commenced.

TIP. "," or "tipcat," is still played at Burnley; but the game is locally known as "playing at t' bad." "Bad" is a North-country word descriptive of the short thick piece of wood driven by the players. He who can drive the bad the greatest distance in so many strokes wins the game.

 BLACKTHORN. number of boys and girls can play at "blackthorn." Two or three, or it may be only one, stand at a line or mark, placed at some distance from another line, along which all the rest of the players stand in a row. The following dialogue then takes place:—

TheyThe [sic] players then run towards each other's marks, and if any one be caught before he gets home to the opposite mark, he has to carry the one who catches him to the mark, where he takes his place as an additional catcher. In this way the game goes on till all are caught.

 FIVES. game is frequently played by boys at both public