backsword
Usage examples:
-
To this day the villagers who went to the last " scouring of the horse" and saw the old- fashioned backsword play, talk of the expedition with as much pride as if they had made a pilgrimage to the Antipodes.
J. Arthur Gibbs in "A Cotswold Village". -
There has been no pastime since 1857. It would have been a splendid way of commemorating the " diamond jubilee" if a scouring had been organised in 1897. Forty years have passed since the last pastime, with its backsword play and " climmin a greasy pole for a leg of mutton," its race for a pig and a cheese; and, oddly enough, the previous scouring had taken place in the year of the Queen's accession, sixty- one years ago.
J. Arthur Gibbs in "A Cotswold Village".