Bittle-Battle

Glossary of Games

Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Bittle-Battle
Game Family	Hook-em-snivy Hook-em-snivy
Location
Regions
Eras	Predecessor
Invented	No
Tags
Description	A game called bittle battle is mentioned (but not described) in the 1086 Domesday Book in England. Some have claimed that this game resembled Stoolball. [A] In fact, Gomme [1894] defines Bittle-Battle as “the Sussex game of ‘Stoolball.’” [B] Similarly, Andrew Lusted reports that an 1875 source lists bittle battle as "another word for stoolball,"  [C] Lusted also finds an 1864 newspaper account that makes a similar but weaker claim:  "Among the many [Seaford] pastimes were bittle-battle, bell in the ring, . . . "
Sources	On the Domesday Book s-See Protoball Chronology #1086.1 [A.] Gomme, Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Volume 1 (Dover Press,  New York, 1964 -- orig. 1898), page 34. [B] Lusted, Andrew, Girls Just Wanted to Have Fun, 2013, page 3, citing Rev'd W. D. Parish, Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, 1875. [C] Lusted, op. cit., page 28.  The source is the Sussex Advertiser, June 21, 1864.
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Comment	From https://erenow.net/common/fourbritishfolkwaysinamerica1989/27.php "Another rule-bound version of an English folk sport was called town ball, the Massachusetts game or the New England game. It was played with a bat, a ball and four bases on a field sixty feet square, by eight to twenty players, each of whom kept his own individual tally. The New England game was also descended from a family of English traditional games, of which perhaps the nearest equivalent was called bittle-battle. Its rules were remarkably similar to modern baseball. Bittle-battle was played with four bases (each about a foot square) 48 feet apart. The pitcher stood 24 feet from home base, and each batter was out if the ball was caught, or if it touched a base before the batter reached it. The game of bittle-battle was played in southeastern England, particularly in Kent. It was brought to Massachusetts in the early seventeenth century, and became so common that by the eighteenth century it bore the name of the region." [ba] Edit with form to add a comment
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