the provinces vs the sticks

the provinces

the sticks

noun
  • The set of yardage markers used by a chain crew to indicate the ten yards between the line of scrimmage from the previous first down and the line to gain, which the offense must reach in their series of four downs in order to retain possession of the ball. 

  • A remote, rural area; a place that is removed from civilization such as the boondocks. 

How often have the words the provinces and the sticks occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )