Stoolball
Stoolball is an old ball sport ( batball game ) from southern England, where variants are still played in schools today. Focus is on Sussex with several local leagues; there are also some teams in Kent .
Originally, the game was run by female milkers who used the seats of their overturned milking stools as wickets . (English from stool stool ) is also the name of the game derives. Equipment and rules are largely the same as those of cricket ; Teams consist of 11 players, either women or mixed.
Records indicate that the game was operated as early as 1450 and it is mentioned in the classic book Don Quixote . The game also appeared in a 1656 Cumberland and Westmoreland Counties notice complaining that "too much attention was paid to shooting, soccer, stoolball and wrestling."
Modern rules for stoolball were adopted at a meeting in Glynde, East Sussex , in 1881 . Here, at least the dimensions (spacing of the wickets , position of the throwing mark for the bowler ) have been standardized.
The National Stoolball Association was founded in 1979 in Haywards Heath (West Sussex) by representatives from 9 different leagues and associations. It replaces the Stoolball Association for Great Britain , which went down in 1942 - which was partly due to World War II and partly to the death of Major WW Grantham . He had initiated this first association in 1923 and established the enormous popularity of the game after the First World War: in 1927 there were more than 1000 clubs that played stoolball.
The goals set at the 1979 National Stoolball Association inaugural meeting were:
- Promotion and dissemination of the stoolball.
- Cooperation between regional associations and, if necessary, establishment of such.
- Study of the rule variants in the different parts of the country with the aim of standardizing them. This lasted four years. National championships have been possible since then.
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- Marcus Rosenstein: The Ball Sports Lexicon. The ball and ball games in the world . Weinmann, Berlin 1997. ISBN 3-87892-062-8 .
- National Stoolball Association website (see below)