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PITCH—PITCH AND TOSS 43
Send him east, or send him west, Send him to the craw's nest.
—Blackwood)s Magazine, August 1821, p. 37.
The rhyme suggests comparison with the game of " Hot Cockles."
Pitch
A game played with pennies, or other round discs. The object is to pitch the penny into a hole in the ground from a certain point.—Elworthy, West Somerset Words.
Probably " Pick and Hotch," mentioned in an article in Blackwood's Mag., Aug. 1821, p. 35. Common in London streets.
Pitch and Hustle
" Chuck-Farthing." The game of " Pitch and Toss " is very common, being merely the throwing up of halfpence, the result depending on a guess of heads or tails.—Halliwell's Dictionary.
Pitch and Toss
This game was played by two or more players with " pitchers " —the stakes being buttons. The ordinary bone button, or " scroggy," being the unit of value. The " pitcher " was made of lead, circular in form, from one and a half inch to two inches in diameter, and about a quarter of an inch thick, with an " H " to stand for "Heads " cut on one side, and a "T" for " Tails " on the other side. An old-fashioned penny was sometimes used, and an old " two-penny " piece I have by me bears the marks of much service in the same cause. A mark having been set up—generally a stone—and the order of play having been fixed, the first player, A, threw his " pitcher " to the mark, from a point six or seven yards distant. If he thought he lay sufficiently near the mark to make it probable that he would be the nearest after the others had thrown, he said he would "lie." The effect of that was that the players who followed had to lie also, whatever the character of their throw. If A's throw was a poor one he took up his " pitcher." B then threw, if he threw well he 'May," if not he took up his pitcher, in hope of making a better throw, as A had done. C then played in the same manner. D followed and "lay." E played his pitcher, |
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