OLDEST BRITISH GAME.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11280, 9 August 1930, Page 11

OLDEST BRITISH GAME.

Every boy who puts up a makeshift wicket, consisting of an old box, with a rough board for a bat, and a ball made of knotted string, or anything which conies to hand, is obeying the age-long instinct of the Briton for games. He is also unconsciously copying our oldest- game, stoolball, which, was the forerunner of cricket, and was probably played by the children of Carac-tacus, states the “Sunday Express.”

Stool-ball was so named because af dairymaid’s milk stool formed tho wicket, and it is likely that the original cricketers were girls. No bat was used in the old game, the. wicket being defended with the hand, which was afterwards armed with a stick, and finally a bat. The old game has now been revived, and is played with wickets made of squares of wood fixed on poles, a rubber ball, and small wooden bats shaped like tennis racquets. Recently the Duke of Norfolk invited the “Men of Sussex” to spend their outing at .Aruhde.l Castle, and ho captained the West Sussex team at stool-hall, when, although he had never played before, he' made the top score of 24.