Semantic search

“Base ball” and rounders were both played at a summer treat for students representing several church schools and bible classes in the town of Diss, Norfolk. According to a newspaper report, the children first enjoyed a tea, and then the boys “indulged in cricket, rounders, base ball, jumping contests, &c., while the girls amused themselves in various ways under the supervision of the lady teachers.”

Diss (Norfolk) Express, July 30, 1915, p. 4

“Base-ball” was among the games enjoyed by boys and girls of the Portsmouth Royal Seamen and Marines Orphan Home at a summer outing to Hambledon Downs. A newspaper reported that the scene did the accompanying naval men “a real amount of good to see the little ones enjoy themselves in their games of cricket, base-ball, etc.”

Hampshire Telegraph, July 28, 1916, p. 2

“Pise-ball” was mentioned in a newspaper column where the writer was protesting how children were being deprived of their opportunities to play games in a Sheffield park because so many adults were swarming in to play sports. He wrote: “The point is that the children are being robbed 'all ends up,' to use a local term. Adults are catered for by works and church sports clubs, and it is not fair to rob the children of their cricket pitches, their football grounds, or their 'pise-ball' corners.”

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Aug. 20, 1921, p. 8

“Baseball” was played by ladies alone, or possibly with men as well, at a half day's outing of officers and teachers of Park-street Baptist Sunday School of Luton, Bedordshire. A newspaper report, that was not altogether clear, stated that various games were played, including a remarkable football match, which was responsible for many stiff limbs on Sunday morning for those unaccustomed to such strenuous exercise. The ladies, meanwhile, contented themselves with the less boisterous game of baseball, but when sports in which both sexes could take part came on the fun waxed furious indeed, and it was whispered that the tremendous atmospheric vibration set up brought great showers of autumn leaves from the stately old trees that looked down on the revels.”

It's not clear to me whether “sports in which both sexes could take part” included baseball, or whether the ladies played it without men. This is late for English baseball but it seems more likely than American style, given the context.

Beds and Herts Pictorial, Aug. 30, 1921, p. 2

“Baseball” was one of the games taken up by lady members of the Amersham (Buckinghamshire) Traders Association to the nearby hamlet of Mop End. While the men were engaged in a spirited match of cricket, a newspaper reported that “the lady members had been indulging in tennis, cricket and baseball.”

Late, but possibly English baseball because the players were women.

Buckinghamshire Examiner, June 30, 1922, p. 4

“Pise-ball” was mentioned in a newspaper piece commemorating a Sheffield teacher's 40 years of service. During her time at the school, according to the article, “there have been exactly 5,378 Abbeyville girls, who have lined up in the mornings, played 'pise-ball' in the corner by the boys' school, squatted around on the tennis pole stones on hot afternoons, and made slides down the playground on frosty ones.”

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sept. 5, 1922, p. 3

Water “base ball” was among the attractions at an aquatics competition staged by the Gosport Athletic Swimming Club of the southern Hampshire town of Gosport, held at nearby Stokes Bay. A newspaper report of the event revealed “there was much enthusiasm over a six a-side water base ball match, in which both ladies and gentlemen took part. The ladies were very keen, Miss Bell getting two rounders in easy style.”

This is a very late example of the mysterious English phenomenon of water baseball. That scores were called “rounders” suggests the game was modeled after English baseball, rather than American.

Portsmouth Evening News, July 16, 1923, p. 5

“Tutball” was cited in one of a series of Lichfield, Staffordshire, newspaper articles about Staffordshire Customs, this one entitled “Children's Games, Pastimes and Amusements.” After a lengthy discussion of rounders, the writer added that “'Tutball' was a similar game in which the bat was dispensed with, and the open hand used to smite the ball—once highly popular with the poorer children of the Black Country whose means precluded the possibility of providing other apparatus than a penny ball.” A description of the game then followed.

Lichfield Mercury, Jan. 4, 1924, p. 6

“Base ball” was among the amusements enjoyed by young cadets of the Sons of Temperance from the town of Hadleigh, Suffolk, who were treated to a day and evening's outing on an estate in the nearby village of Layham. According to a newspaper report, “during the evening, amusements of various kinds, viz., cricket, skipping, base ball, and racing for money, were freely indulged in, the hunting for hidden treasures causing much fun.”

Given the late date, it might seem unlikely that these children were playing English-style baseball. Yet the setting in rural Suffolk, the two-word spelling of the word baseball, and the familiar motif of a church-affiliated children's group playing the game on a country outing, all support the possibility that this could be a rare surviving example of an otherwise extinct form of baseball.

Bury Free Press, Aug. 30, 1924, p. 9

“Pise-ball” was mentioned in another newspaper column, this one entitled “A Crying Need: More Town Playgrounds for Children.” The writer wrote: “What they need in the hours in which they are not in school, is a space large enough to be swept by the swift, sweet, cleansing winds of heaven, and open enough to be drenched in light and all the sunshine there is to be had. A space which is their own, where they are out of street dangers, both physical and moral, and have room for the free play of their lungs and limbs without getting in one another's way. A space where organised games, football, cricket, tennis, hockey, pise-ball can be played, and the cooperative spirit, the community sense, be engendered.”

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Jan. 16, 1928, p. 2

“Tut-ball” was one of the amusements enjoyed by members and families of the Labour Party of Holmewood, a mining village in northeast Darbyshire, on an outing to nearby Sutton Spring Wood. A newspaper reported that “games were played and included ladies' and gentlemen's cricket match, football, jolly miller, tut-ball, leap frog, tug-of-war, dancing to the gramophone, etc.”

Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, Aug. 25, 1928, p. 10

“Pize-ball” was included in a childhood reminiscence of a Shipley, West Yorkshire, man recalling how he celebrated Whitsuntide 50 years earlier. A newspaper reported that among other things, “different games were played, 'pize' ball, kissing in the ring, etc.”

Shipley Times and Express, May 28, 1958, p. 2