Bat and Ball Games - History and Useful Information

Stoolball

Stoolball is an ancestor of Cricket and Bat and Trap and play is pretty similar to Cricket.  The story goes that milkmaids started the game by throwing stones at their upturned stools while waiting for their shepherd husbands to return from the fields where they were passing the time throwing stones at "wicket gates", a kind of field gate.  A more concrete fact is that the game, in 1671, was apparently played in North Wiltshire, North Gloucestershire and near Bath.  At that time the ball was 4 1/2 inches, stuffed with quills and very hard.  The bat was a "staffe" made of withy about 3 1/2 feet long.  It seemed to die out  after the 17th century but in 1916 Major Grantham of Balneath Manor, Sussex re-kindled it as a healthy pastime for soldiers convalescing soldiers and it has been alive in Sussex ever since.

Today, the game is played with wickets that are 1 foot high square boards hoisted on poles standing 4 feet 8 inches high.  Each structure stands 16 yards apart and is bowled at behind a bowling crease just 10 yards from the wicket.  The bowler throws the ball underarm at the wicket without bouncing and the batsman scores runs in the same way as for cricket - by running to the opposing wicket.  The ball is solid and covered in leather and the bat is rounded and about 7 1/2 inches across with a stubby handle.   Also like cricket, each team consists of 11 players but an "over" consists of eight balls, not six.

Pictures published by kind permission Richard Emsley, The National Stoolball Association.

Bat and Trap

The game of Bat and Trap is something of a Kent tradition and isn't really known outside of this English county.  There was a monastery on the site where Ye Old Beverlie Inn now stands, and it is believed that the ancestor of Bat & Trap, which is clearly related to Cricket, was first played in the 14th century. The Beverlie opened for business in the 1740's, and it has records of the game being played there since it opened. The game had dwindled almost to non-existence at the beginning of the twentieth century, being played by just a handful of pubs but in 1922, it was rekindled when a group of pubs, Ye Old Beverlie amongst them, created the Canterbury and District Bat and Trap League. From that point, the game and the league gathered strength until in 1986 when a political split caused the creation of the splinter group who called themselves the "Friendly League". At the time entry into the Canterbury and District league could only occur when a team departure created a vacancy and the management was deemed to be somewhat autocratic by it's opponents. The Friendly League today is a smaller, slightly more social affair than it's parent, in which the competition is not taken quite so seriously. At the turn of the twentieth century, the game is again in slight decline as a result of the encroachment of TV, theme pubs and other modern distractions but both leagues continue to thrive.

The picture shows the "Canterbury British Legion" v. "Post Office Telephones" match from the 1954 Festival cup which was played beside the Dane John monument in central Canterbury. By kind permission of Howard Hammond-Edgar, Secretary of the Canterbury and District League.

Bat and Trap is a team game with eight players on each side.   The "trap" is a rectangular mechanical device that lies on the ground.   The batsmen knocks a lever in the trap that shoots a hard rubber ball upwards in front of the batsmen who then smashes it with the bat towards the other side of the pitch.   The objective is to make the ball pass between two white posts which are 21 yards away.  Normally, the ball bounces once or twice before doing this and is fielded by a member of the opposing side who stand in a line just behind and between the posts.   However, in the rare case where a fielder catches the ball without it having touched the ground, the batsman is "caught out".  A batsman who misses the ball or otherwise fails to bash it between the posts successfully is also out, this tragedy being termed "knocked out".

Once the a fielder has the ball in hand, the bowling part of the game proceeds.   The bowler has as a target the front part of the trap, which is a 5 inches square rectangular flap hinged at the bottom and standing vertically.  A bowler from the fielding side throws or rolls the ball down the pitch at the trap target which is called a "wicket" and the batsman must stand back and cannot obstruct the ball in any way.  If the wicket is knocked down, the batsman is "bowled out" and the next batsman steps up.  If the bowler misses, then the batsman has scored a run and carries on with the next strike.

Nipsy

Nipsy is one of a number of games in which the aim is simply to hit a ball or other object as far as possible.  Other pub games with a similar aim include Knur and Spell, Peggy and Billets.  In this game, the nipsy starts on a brick tilted slightly backwards. It is 'risen' by clipping it on the edge with with the stick whereupon it shoots into the air from whence it is whacked as far as possible. A player is allowed to practice 'rising' the nipsy up to 6 times before he actually takes a strike.

The picture (courtesy Alan Lever) is of Ron Darlow who has just clipped the Nipsy and made it rise. The picture is poignant because Ron died during a later game of Nipsy.

Rather than this author blather on ignorantly about Nipsy, the following is a piece from Alan Lever who used to be the treasurer of the now defunct Barnsley & District Nipsy league (email: ml014c5457 at blueyonder.co.uk).

Nipsy is an old South Yorkshire game similar to the children's games of Piggy/Peggy and the Lancashire game of Billet played in the mill towns surrounding Bolton etc. Around Barnsley the game was and is played by men rather than children. A look at Alan Lever's website - hobbies section will give an idea of the equipment: - stick, nipsy and brick. The nipsy is rested on an up-turned brick, the photo of me on the local field shows one on the brick at the slight angle backwards required.

Although huge hits have been made in practice, to qualify as a record the hit had to be made in a match or a Long Knock competition. The record single hit is acknowledged at 208 yards by Joe Cooke of Monk Bretton. The highest match total (7 hits) is 1061 metres achieved by Frank Lenthal, whose opponent in the match was Keith Steeples who scored 1016 (the only time that scores totalling over 1000 metres were ever attained)

The Stick

The stick must be made from one piece of wood normally Hickory although Greenheart and Hornbeam have been used to good effect. Originally a road pick shaft and later railway brake sticks were found to be better as they were thicker in the head area. This became important as it was found that if the head was pressed in from a thickness of about two inches to one inch, a more durable head was made. The presses used took many shapes, the majority hardly touching the thickness but all players wanted a "pressed" stick. After a few attempts my last press was made from 2" plates, with four 15" x 1¼" UNF bolts, thrust bearings on each with 4" captive nuts welded to the base plate. A real beast that could shove the head in to the thickness of a twenty packet of cigs, using a ten foot length of pipe and a 1" drive socket for the 1¼" UNF bolts. Setting this in the engineers vice of the welding bench where I was employed as a Pipefitter/welder, I spent many an hour (on the night shift) pressing my sticks.

Shown (courtesy Alan Lever) is Denis Youel of Miners Higham pressing a stick in an engineer's vice.

This was not the ultimate! As you may know Barnsley used to surrounded by Coal mines and in each pits blacksmiths shop was a rail straightener, a press with a hydraulic ram 8" in diameter that would press the heads in very easily BUT all this technology was kept secret from all but the honoured few. This combined with steaming the wood for three hours in a length of 3" pipe before pressing, fashioned a stick with a head that would last a season, others would shred up after a few weeks.

The Materials

Pictured is Alan Lever with stick, Nipsy and brick. With enormous thanks to Alan Lever.

The nipsy could only be made from two substances, Lignum Vitae or Permali - a wood/ resin "man improved" wood substitute simply because these were the only things that would stand the hammer of being hit without shattering - although they still did quite often. Permali, a trade name was used on the railway as fishplates to bolt the lines together, when they broke the platelayers slung them down the banking but they would still provide enough material for about twenty nipsys. Years ago very crafty players tried using Ivory. It worked perfectly but gave an unfair advantage to the lucky few that had Ivory nipsys. So it was soon banned as was hard composition rubber. It was said that many a Miners Welfare or Working Mens Club snooker table were missing a ball or two at the time...

Most football pitches are just about big enough for Nipsy so this ensured it's survival into the 80's but now getting the required wood, Hickory, Lignum Vitae is getting very difficult. When the coal industry declined the huge marshalling yards in the Dearne Valley/Rotherham areas were closed and this coupled with the modern "Firecracker" welded lines means that this source has dried up.

Knur and Spell (or Knur and Sling)

Knur and Spell is another games whereby men attempt to hit an object as hard as they damn well can (or otherwise swear violently when they miss).  The Knur, a hard golf-ball sized ball, is propelled vertically into the air by a Spell, a mechanical device that is tripped when a foot or club presses a lever (like the Trap in Bat and Trap). It would seem that in the Barnsley area the spell (trap) was always used. The sling, used in the Pennine districts of Yorkshire was only encountered by Barnsley players when Yorkshire Television organised the World Championship in the 1960's and 70's. It is simply a little sling that dangles the knur from a stick stuck in the ground. Other than that the games are exactly the same.

The aforementioned Alan Lever (see Nipsy) is good friends with the former Knur and Spell World Champion (Yorkshire TV cup 1970s), Fred Lenthall. Alan and Fred have kindly compiled the following invaluable information and description of this jewel of a game as played by them in the seventies.

When Frank first joined the Yorkshire Cup competition, the sling was more common and he was barred from using the trap having to use a broken sling to take part. Needless to say he came nowhere BUT the next year he came with his own sling etc. and duly wiped the floor with the Ellanders who had barred him. Poetic Justice innit (much stronger language than this was used when he hit the big one - with the Agincourt Salute given to em in great measure) Yorkshire Television had (has?) archive film of the proceedings of a number of years competitions and also a fair bit about Nipsy. Frank Lenthal's winning hit that broke a thirty year record at Elland, West Yorkshire was 13 chains 6 yards and 2 feet. Almost 293 yards so a large field was needed. The chain was a surveyors chain of 22 yds, two men and an umpire measuring the hit. Other men would be spread out along the line to make sure the measure was as direct as possible with no bows in the chain.

The first picture is by George Walker c. 1817 and shows how the 'trippet' or 'spell' worked and how the distance was measured by pushing sticks into the ground at regular intervals. The second picture is of a Knur and Spell champion - Selwyn Schofield of Elland - setting up the Knur in a sling prior to taking a shot.

Nipsy and Knur & Spell happily co-existed for many years but as the much larger fields needed for Knurr were swallowed up by housing estates and factories, this may have led to it's decline.

The Knur (or Potty)

The game around Barnsley was known as Potty Knocking or just Knurr as the Knurr is a ceramic sphere about 15 mm in diameter commonly used in the kettles of the pre war era to stop limescale furring it up. The water in this area is beautifully soft so potties were quite rare. Later on when it was impossible to get them a local ceramic pipeworks, Naylor's of Cawthorne was roped in to produce new ones. Officially or not is lost in the mists of time.

The Spell

The Spell quite rightly is the trap (the same mechanism as for 'Bat and Trap') that throws the potty up and forward, normally a piece of spring steel with a cup at the business end to hold the potty, this had spikes at each corner to enable the trap to be bedded down in grass etc. Screw adjustment to the stop bar allowed very small increments in the height and distance the potty was thrown. The swing of the stick was kept constant, adjustments made until contact was made with the potty, this might take days to get right. When all was set up right the player would trip the trap with the stick and doing a round the head swing would hopefully hit the potty.

The Pummel

Around Barnsley the stick was known as a 'Pummel' with the interchangeable heads as pummel heads. Different heads were used for differing weather conditions. Play was always with the wind if possible and different wood faces would tend to loft the potty to take advantage of the wind or if playing with the wind was impossible, a harder face would be used. These wood faces tended to be fruit woods such as Apple or Plum, stuck onto a Beech head (this giving the weight to the pummel head) giving an appearance similar to a 1 wood in golf, the overall stick length being upwards of 5'6" the shaft being made from Hickory. The shaft end was tapered, this fitted very snugly into a matching joint in the pummell head. To change a head, the whipping that tightened the head/shaft joint together was removed and a lit candle gently run up the joint length. This softened the Bitumen that was used as a form of re-usable glue in the joint and the head removed. Cleaning the joint first, new Bitumen was spread in the joint, the new head fitted and the whipping remade. This whipping was the linen thread used by old time cobblers to sew soles on shoes - "Tatchin end" in Barnsley Speke, no idea of its correct name.

Buy Stoolball

Masters Traditional Games sells Stoolball equipment

Pubs & Leagues

Please see the separate Bat & Ball Pubs & Leagues page.

Links

The National Stoolball Association

Bat and Trap from Michael Clayton
The Canterbury & District Bat & Trap League from Howard Hammond-Edgar. This is the first and oldest league in the country although Ye Olde Beverlie is no longer part of it.

jm at tradgames.org.uk
Copyright © 1997-2005 by James Masters.