As a lad I once worked with an old ex miner from Hoyland. He referred to my steel capped boots as 'Burrin Boits'. He said that in his younger day the miners used to indulge in a deadly game of shin kicking for bets.

Many a miner went home skint having lost his wages in these games. The idea was to stand facing your opponent with your hands on his shoulders. At a given signal after the bets were placed they proceeded to kick each other's shins until one of them gave in.

It gives an whole new meaning to the phrase, 'Sharpening thi Clog irons on't coursy edge'.

Does anyone else know of this or any other betting games from those 'good' old days.

..........and the young 'uns today think they're 'hard'!

I've only just seen this Thread and I think the gambling game of 'Burrin' originated in Ireland.
I used to work with an Irish gang way back and they would talk about it.
They also have another pastime whereby,anybody who wants a gamble, join a number of others and stand, about ten yards apart, down a long sloping lane. Somebody bowls a steel ball, about as big as a football, down the lane and the lads have to stop it with a foot.
I think there are some rules but that's basically it.

They still do shin kicking in the Chipping Campden Olimpicks. (yes it's spelt like that)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotswold_Olimpick_Games

It's close to the place where they do the famous cheese rolling.

Tossing rings at Sky edge, Just off City road, source Sheffield Gang Wars book & documentary, the betting rings were the cause of many a feud, which turned extremely violent.

As PopT says clogin used to be a man's "sport". Years ago in Stannington the old men used to talk of a man by the name of Cloggie Harper who was the local champion,he was some relation to Ernest Harper the famous Marathon runner. Another game played in that area was Knur and spell,played by knocking a "pottie" up in the air and hitting it with a stick as far as you could,A pottie was a ball of clay as big as a large marble that had been baked,possibly at the local brick works, I am not sure if they gambled on that game though.

I am Carol's partnerand study and teach the history of the martial arts as well as being a 9th Dan Black belt
northern (lancs & Yorks) shinkicking was know as "Purring" and I have a DVD teaching aspect of that art and several other ancient english combat styles.

interesting you are from Hoyland,,, we are from Rawmarsh

How about this for another version...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2CSpNze5Q