--Lawson s _Upton-on-Severn Words and Phrases_. V. Hobley, hobley, honcor, my first conkor; Hobbley, hobbley ho, my first go; Hobley, hobley ack, my first crack. --Chamberlain s _West Worcestershire Glossary_. (_b_) This game is played with horse chestnuts threaded on a string. Two boys sit face to face astride of a form or a log of timber. If a piece of turf can be procured so much the better. One boy lays his chestnut upon the turf, and the other strikes at it with his chestnut; and they go on striking alternately till one chestnut splits the other. The chestnut which remains unhurt is then conqueror of one. A new chestnut is substituted for the broken one, and the game goes on.
They are called checkstones, and the game is played thus. You throw down the cubes all at once, then toss the ball, and during its being in the air gather up one stone in your right hand and catch the descending ball in the same. Put down the stone and repeat the operation, gathering two stones, then three, then four, till at last you have summed up all the five at once, and have succeeded in catching the ball. In case of failure you have to begin all over again. (_b_) In Nashe s _Lenten Stuff_ (1599) occurs the following: Yet towards cock-crowing she caught a little slumber, and then she dreamed that Leander and she were playing at checkstone with pearls in the bottom of the sea. A game played by children with round small pebbles (Halliwell s _Dictionary_). It is also mentioned in the early play of _Apollo Shroving_, 1627, p. 49. See Chucks, Fivestones. Cherry Odds A game of Pitch and Toss played with cherry-stones (Elworthy s _West Somerset Words_).