View source for Stoolball

{{Short description|Paddle sport from Sussex, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox sport
| name       = Stoolball
| image      = King Georges Field, South Park, Reigate - geograph.org.uk - 1424804.jpg
| imagesize  = 180px
| caption    = Ladies Stoolball Team, 2009
| union      = [[Stoolball England]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stoolball.org.uk/|title=Stoolball England|website=stoolball.org.uk|author= |date= |access-date=7 September 2022|publisher=Stoolball England|language=en}}</ref>
| nickname   = "cricket in the air"<br> "bittle-battle"
| first      = {{unbulleted list|{{Start date and age|df=yes|1500}}<br />[[Sussex, England]]|First rules established: {{Start date and age|df=yes|1867}}}}
| firstlabel =
| country/region = [[Sussex]], [[Kent]], [[Surrey]], [[English Midlands|Midlands]]
| registered = 
| clubs      = 
| contact    = 
| team       = 
| category   = Ladies-only or mixed
| equipment  =
| venue      = 
| IWGA       = No
}}
{{HistBaseball nav}}

'''Stoolball''' is a sport that dates back to at least the 15th century, originating in [[Sussex]], [[southern England]]. It is considered a "'''traditional striking and fielding sport'''"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sportingheritage.org.uk/content/what-we-do/projects/the-sporting-heritage-of-disability-and-womens-sports/stoolball-what-ball-history-of-the-traditional-rural-womens-sport|title=Stoolball: 'What Ball?' History of the traditional, rural women's sport.|website=sportingheritage.org.uk|author=Anita Broad|date=24 August 2020|access-date=14 September 2022|publisher=Sporting Heritage UK|language=en}}</ref> and may be an ancestor of [[cricket]]<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1940 |title=Ball Game Aka Stoolball Issue Title Is Believe It Or Not (1940) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekpXrfLJeG4 |access-date=4 July 2024 |website=youtube.com |publisher=[[British Pathé]] |language=en}}</ref> (a game it resembles in some respects), [[baseball]], [[softball]], and [[rounders]]. The sport has been called "cricket in the air". There is evidence to suggest that it was played as a tradition by [[milkmaid]]s who used their milking [[Stool (seat)|stool]]s as a "[[wicket]]" and the bittle, or milk bowl as a bat, hence its archaic name of ''bittle-battle.''<ref>History And Antiquities Of Horsham, Doreathea E. Hurst, Farncombe & Co, Lewes, Sussex 2nd Ed (1889) page 257</ref>

The sport of stoolball is strongly associated with Sussex and has been referred to as Sussex's [[national sport|'national' sport]]<ref>{{harvnb | Coates |2010 | p=79}}</ref> and a Sussex game<ref>{{harvnb|Gomme|1894| p=219}}</ref> or pastime.<ref name="Locke 2011 203">{{harvnb|Locke|2011| p=203}}</ref>  The National Stoolball Association was formed in 1979 to promote and expand stoolball.<ref name="SEng-Hist">{{cite web | url = http://www.stoolball.org.uk/about/history-of-stoolball-england/ | title = History of Stoolball England | publisher = Stoolball England | location = United Kingdom | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120503062033/http://www.stoolball.org.uk/about/history-of-stoolball-england/ | archive-date = 2012-05-03 | url-status = live | access-date = 2013-03-20 | quote = Stoolball England was formed as the National Stoolball Association on 3 October 1979. ... The aims laid down in the inaugural meeting of the National Stoolball Association in 1979 [included]: The promotion and expansion of stoolball; To seek to link together existing associations and to encourage the formation of others.}}</ref> The game was officially recognised as a sport by the [[Sports Council]] in early 2008.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7322486.stm|title=Medieval game gets sport status|date=31 March 2008|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=March 28, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/07/21/stoolball-predecessor-american-baseball/kec1T0JIfIQ2pOEppH2ujL/story.html|title=Meet baseball's ancestor: England's stoolball|date=22 July 2014|author=Kevin Paul Dupont|access-date=30 March 2022|work=[[The Boston Globe]]}}</ref> The National Stoolball Association changed its name to [[Stoolball England]] in 2010 on the advice of the Sports Council and was recognised as the national governing body for stoolball in England in 2011. The organisation is recognised by [[Sport England]].

The game's popularity has faded since the 1960s, but it continues to be played at a local league level in [[Sussex]], [[Kent]], [[Surrey]] and the [[English Midlands|Midlands]].  Some variants are played in some schools. Teams can be ladies only or mixed. There are ladies' leagues in Sussex, Surrey and Kent and mixed leagues in Sussex.

==History==
===Medieval and Tudor references===
[[File:ALPP - Stool-Ball.png|thumb|1767 Illustration of Stoolball in the children's book ''[[A Little Pretty Pocket-Book]]'']]
[[File:Stoolball fords green 1902.jpg|thumb|Stoolball game in 1902 in Nutley, East Sussex]]
Stoolball is attested by name as early as 1450. Nearly all medieval references describe it as a game played during [[Easter]] celebrations, typically as a [[courtship]] pastime rather than a competitive game. The game's associations with romance remained strong into the modern period. Written by [[William Shakespeare]] and the Sussex-born playwright [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], the comedy, ''[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]]'' used the phrase "playing stool ball" as a euphemism for sexual behaviour.<ref>{{cite book |title=Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game |last=Block |first=David |year=2006 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-6255-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of traditional British Rural Sports |editor1=Tony Collins |editor2=John Martin |editor3=Wray Vamplew |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge Sports Reference |isbn=978-0-415-35224-6}}</ref>

===Early competitions and establishment of codes===
Stoolball makes an appearance in the dictionary of [[Samuel Johnson]], where it is defined as a game played by driving a ball from stool to stool.

Stoolball seems to have been one of the earliest [[women's sports|sports in which women participated]].  Activities for women before about 1870 were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature. They were typically non-competitive, informal, rule-less; they emphasised physical activity rather than competition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Richard |title=A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX |url=http://thesportjournal.org/article/a-history-of-women-in-sport-prior-to-title-ix/ |website=The Sport Journal |date=14 March 2008 |access-date=7 April 2017}}</ref>  In contrast, stoolball allowed women to participate in competitive sport.

A "fine match of stoolball" is recorded as having been played in June 1747 by a total of 28 women at [[Warbleton]].<ref name="SxEx-MLSS">{{cite web |url=https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/the-much-loved-sussex-sport-of-stoolball-1-6849306|title=The much-loved Sussex sport of stoolball|website=sussexexpress.co.uk|author= |date=17 July 2015|access-date= |publisher=[[Sussex Express]]|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030090614/https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/the-much-loved-sussex-sport-of-stoolball-1-6849306|archive-date=30 October 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> The first inter-county stoolball match took place between the women of Sussex and [[Kent]] in 1797 at Tunbridge Wells Common on the historic border between the two counties.<ref name="SB-MC">{{cite web|url=http://www.stoolball.org.uk/2008/07/matterface-cup-and-veterans-cup|title=Matterface Cup and Veterans Cup 2008|date=28 July 2009|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>  Sussex women wore blue ribbons to represent the county while the women of Kent wore pink ribbons.<ref name="SB-MC"/>

Sussex historian Andrew Lusted has argued that between 1866 and 1887 the Glynde Butterflies stoolball team were the first women in England to be considered sports stars.<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stoolball.org.uk/history/story/glynde-butterflies|title='The Glynde Butterflies 1866-1887' by Andrew Lusted {{!}} England's first female sports stars|website=stoolball.org.uk|author=Andrew Lusted|date= |access-date=7 September 2022|publisher= |language=en}}</ref> In 1866 the first recorded stoolball match took place between teams of named women representing villages as the Glynde Butterflies took on the Firle Blues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stoolball.org.uk/history/story/glynde-butterflies/|title=The Glynde Butterflies 1866-1887|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>  Other teams included the [[Chailey]] Grasshoppers, [[Selmeston]] [[Harvest bug|Harvest Bug]]s, [[Heathfield and Waldron|Waldron]] Bees, [[Eastbourne]] Seagulls, [[Danny House|Danny]] Daisies and [[Westmeston]].<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/>

The sport's modern rules were codified at [[Glynde]] in 1881 where the two slightly different sets of rules in the east and the west of Sussex were brought together.<ref>{{harvnb|Collins|2005| p=251}}</ref>  In 1867 the rules in the east of the county were compiled by the Rev [[William de St Croix]], the vicar of Glynde, and were the first rules to be established.<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/>

===20th century revival===
A Sussex Stoolball League was established in 1903.<ref name="Locke 2011 203"/>  Initially played by women only, men joined in shortly afterwards.<ref name="Locke 2011 203"/>  Modern stoolball is centred on Sussex where the game was revived in the early 20th century by [[Major William Grantham]].<ref>{{harvnb|Locke|2011 |p=203}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Nauright|2012| p=194}}</ref>  Grantham wore a traditional Sussex [[Smock-frock|round frock]] and [[beaver hat]] to stoolball games.<ref name="SEng-Hist"/>  In 1917, [[County Cricket Ground, Hove|Sussex County Cricket Ground]] in Hove hosted a match between young men who had lost one arm in [[First World War]] action at a temporary hospital in Brighton's [[Royal Pavilion]], "damaged by wounds", and a team of older lawyers, "damaged by age".<ref name="SEng-Hist"/>  The soldiers won and were deemed to be 'heroes'.<ref name="SEng-Hist"/>  In 1919 a demonstration match was held at [[Lord's]] and the game was also played near the trenches of the battlefields of the First World War.<ref name="Collins 2005 252">{{harvnb|Collins|2005| p=252}}</ref><ref name="Locke 2011 203"/>

First played in 1923, the League Championship Challenge Cup is open to the winning teams of the five leagues of the Sussex County Stoolball Association - North, East, West, Mid and Central.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stoolball.org.uk/sussexchampionship/2014|title=Sussex County Stoolball Association League Championship, 2014 Season|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>  By the 1930s stoolball was being played in the Midlands and the north of England.<ref name="Locke 2011 203"/>  Since 1938 Sussex and Kent have competed annually for the Rose Bowl, which was presented to Sussex by Major William Grantham.  This is sometimes a team representing Sussex and sometimes one of Sussex's five leagues may represent the county against Kent.<ref name="SB-MC"/>  Grantham founded the Stoolball Association of Great Britain at Lord's in 1923.<ref name="Collins 2005 252"/>  By 1927 over 1,000 clubs were playing stoolball across England, however in 1942 the Stoolball Association of Great Britain ceased to function.   The National Stoolball Association was founded on 3 October 1979 at Clair Hall in [[Haywards Heath]] attended by 23 people from nine different leagues.  On the advice of the Sports Council the governing body was renamed Stoolball England in 2010.<ref name="SEng-Hist"/>

In the early 20th century stoolball was also played outside England, including in [[France]], [[Japan]] and [[Ceylon]] (now Sri Lanka).<ref name="SEng-MSR-G">{{cite web|url=https://www.stoolball.org.uk/history/story/stoolball-in-sussex-by-russell-goggs/|title=Stoolball in Sussex, by M S Russell-Goggs|first=M.S.|last=Russell=Goggs|access-date=30 October 2018}}</ref>

==Description and rules==
[[File:Player-positions.png|thumb|Stoolball field]]
Stoolball is played on grass with a {{convert|90|yards|adj=on|abbr=off}} diameter boundary, and the pitch is {{convert|16|yards|abbr=off}} long. Each team consists of 11 players, with one team fielding and the other batting. Bowling is underarm from a bowling "crease" {{convert|10|yards|abbr=off}} from the batter's wicket, with the ball reaching the batter on the full as in rounders or baseball rather than bouncing from the pitch as in cricket. Each over consists of 8 balls. The "wicket" itself is a square piece of wood at head or shoulder height fastened to a post. Traditionally this was the seat of a stool hung from a post or tree; some versions used a tall stool placed upright on the ground.

As it is played today, a bowler attempts to hit the wicket with the ball, and a batter defends it using a bat shaped like a frying pan. The batter scores "runs" by running between the wickets or hitting the ball beyond the boundary in a similar way to cricket. A ball hit over the boundary counts for 4 runs if it has hit the ground before reaching the boundary, or 6 runs if it landed beyond the boundary upon first contact with the ground.  Fielders attempt to catch the ball or run out the batter by hitting the wicket with the ball before the batter returns from her or his run.

Originally the batter simply had to defend her or his stool from each ball with a hand and would score a point for each delivery until the stool was hit. The game later evolved to include runs and bats.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rules of Stoolball |url=https://www.stoolball.org.uk/rules/rules-of-stoolball |website=Stoolball UK rules}}</ref>

==Confusion with the game of Stoball==
According to [[Alice Gomme]], early records have shown that the game was called Stobball or Stoball<ref>Gomme, Alice Bertha (1894). ''The traditional games of England, Scotland, and Ireland: with tunes, singing-rhymes, and methods of playing according to the variants extant and recorded in different parts of the Kingdom.'' David Nutt (publisher), London. Archived by archive.org on June 26, 2007 and viewable [https://archive.org/details/traditionalgames00gomm here]</ref> and was a game peculiar to North Wiltshire, North Gloucestershire, and a little part of Somerset, near Bath. However, although the 17th century antiquarian [[John Aubrey]] described a game called "stobball" played in this area, his description of it does not appear to be stoolball.<ref>"Stobball-play is peculiar to North Wilts, North Gloucestershire, and a little part of Somerset near Bath. They smite a ball, stuffed very hard with quills and covered with soale leather, with a staffe, commonly made of [[withy]], about 3 [feet] and a halfe long... A stobball-ball is of about four inches diameter, and as hard as a stone."</ref> Another contemporary text from the same region characterises "stoball" as a game played mainly by men and boys.<ref>From a Berkeley manuscript of c.1641:"The large and levell playnes..in the vale of this hundred..doe witnes the inbred delight, that both gentry, yeomanry, rascallity, boyes and children, doe take in a game called Stoball... And not a sonne of mine, but at 7. was furnished with his double stoball staves, and a gamster therafter." John Smyth, ''The Berkeley manuscripts: the lives of the Berkeleys, lords of the honour, castle and manor of Berkeley in the county of Gloucester from 1066 to 1618...'': printed for subscribers by [[John Bellows]], Gloucester, 1883–1885.</ref> 

The Oxford English Dictionary considers it unlikely that "stool ball" could have been corrupted into "stobball".<ref>It suggests instead an etymology of the latter word from "stob" + ball, where "stob" means a stump or stub of wood, and refers to the club used to play the game."† stow-ball, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 21 September 2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/191080>.</ref> Stobball could very well instead be the game [[Francis Willughby's Book of Games|Willughby]] called "stow-ball," which resembled golf.

== See also ==
* [[Bat and trap]]
* [[Cricket]]
* [[Origins of baseball]]
* [[Pub games]]
* [[Rounders]]
* [[Trap-ball]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
<!-- Please order books alphabetically by the author's last name -->
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Coates |first= Richard|title= The Traditional Dialect of Sussex|year=2010 |publisher=Pomegranate Press |isbn=978-1-907242-09-0}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Collins |editor-first= Tony |title=Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports|year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415352246}}
* {{cite book |last=Gomme |first= Alice Bertha |title=The traditional games of England, Scotland and Ireland: with tunes, singing rhymes and methods of playing according to the variants extant and recorded in different parts of the kingdom|url=https://archive.org/details/traditionalgames01gommuoft |year=1894 |publisher=David Nutt |location=London }}
* {{cite book |last=Locke |first= Tim|title=Slow Sussex and the South Downs|year=2011 |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |location=Buckinghamshire |isbn=9781841623436}}
* {{cite book |last=Nauright |first= John |title=Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice|year=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1598843002}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.stoolball.co.uk/ Stoolball England]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20010415200434/http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/11/stoolball.html Stoolball is Alive and Well in Sussex]}} (article by Martin Hoerchner for the Society for American Baseball Research)
* [http://slumberland.org/sca/articles/stoolball.html Stool ball: a medieval baseball game]

{{Team Sport}}
{{Sussex}}

[[Category:Ball and bat games]]
[[Category:Sport in England]]
[[Category:Team sports]]
[[Category:Women's team sports]]