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“Tut-ball” was one of the pastimes enjoyed at the annual dinner held for the masters and workmen in the employ of the Atlantic Works, a quality producer of knives and cutlery in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Following a cricket match in the afternoon, the workmen, who were joined by their wives, sat down for a dinner and tea. “These having been disposed of,” a newspaper reported, “the party adjourned to the green. Skittles, bowls, tut-ball, and other such amusements were again the order of the day.”

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, July 17, 1860, p. 3

Attempting to retrieve a ball in a game of “tutball” almost led to a boy's death in the Hillfoot neighborhood of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. A newspaper reported that the boy, William Lamb, “was playing at a game called 'tutball' with several other lads, when the ball was knocked into the river at Hillfoot. Lamb went over the side of the river to recover the ball, and, overbalancing, fell into the water.” Fortunately, he was rescued from the water and taken to an infirmary where he recovered from the “asphixia” caused by being immersed.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 18, 1859, p. 2

Stating that children should be provided space to play “tut-ball” and other games, a newspaper writer in Sheffield, Yorkshire, argued against the local Hallamshire council spending money to make a new park more suitable for adult sports: “I hope the Town Council will not think it necessary to spend money in levelling (sic) the land it is to acquire at Crookes moor. If it were to be a ground for cricket and football matches, no doubt a lot of money would have to be spent upon it. But I look to the children far more than to adults. For the children, a piece of ground, though rough, is sufficient, where they can fly their kites, and play little games at tut-ball, cricket, football, &c. If men were to have the ground for their matches that would mean clearing the children out of their way, which is far from my notion of what is right and desirable.”

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Nov. 1, 1879, p. 6

The game “tut-ball” was mentioned in a Sheffield, Yorkshire, newspaper article discussing some events from the childhood days of Robert Leader, the paper's former proprietor. In one tale, related from a diary entry, the young Robert was visiting a farm with his father: “A humbler game than lawn tennis was then in vogue. 'Mister Wells has got a house at Steel bank, and I have engaged to go, and have a game at tut-ball with him and his ladies.'”

This tut-ball event transpired in the late 1820's.

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Nov. 2, 1885, p. 4

“Tut-ball” was used as a basis of comparison in trying to explain (and denigrate) baseball to a Sheffield, Yorkshire, newspaper audience by an arrogant columnist covering the American tour of the All-England Eleven cricket team. “Base-ball (a kind of “tut-ball,” played with hedge-stakes), however, being less laborious, not at all scientific, and soon over, will continue to please the youthful Americans most; just as euchre takes the place of whist, and spirits the place of wine. Something simple, requiring no thought, soon over, and at which one can talk, is preferred in this superficial land.”

This sort of open contempt for the U.S. was not commonplace in British newspapers of this period. The reference to hedge-stakes is more likely a put-down of spindly baseball bats (as compared to cricket bats), rather than a reference to the stakes used as bases in the Massachusetts game.

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Oct. 23, 1872, p. 3

“Tut-ball” was defined within a serialized publication of the local Hallamshire Vocabulary that appeared in a Sheffield, Yorkshire, newspaper: “Tut-ball—a local game played with a soft ball, in which the players have to make their way to certain homes or stations, called 'tuts.' If hit with the ball while running from one tut to another, their side is out. Called pize ball in the neighborhood of Leeds. The American base-ball seems to be an elaboration of the game.”

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Sept. 28, 1874, p. 4

A young adult novel set in the Staffordshire potteries district described “tut-ball” as one of the games organized by one of the teachers at a school treat : “Another diversion which he always took care to organise was the three-legged race for boys. Also, he usually joined in the tut-ball, a quaint game which owes its surprising longevity to the fact that it is equally proper for both sexes. Within half an hour the treat was in full career; football, cricket, rounders, tick, leap-frog, prison-bars, and round games transformed the field into a vast arena of complicated struggles and emulations.”

Clearly, tut-ball was considered a separate game from rounders in this locale. The “five towns” referred to in the title are fictional stand-ins for the six towns of the Staffordshire potteries district.

Anna of the Five Towns, by Arnold Bennett, London, 1902, Chatto & Windus, p. 205

“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

“Touch ball” was mentioned in newspaper coverage of a court case where an injunction was sought against a boys' camp for using the village green of Wisborough-Green, West Sussex, as its playground. The article reported that the plaintiff's (the chairman of the parish council) complaint of nuisance appeared to be that on one occasion a cricket ball passed very near his bicycle, and on another occasion, while playing at touch ball, the ball went very near his white horse.”

London Evening Standard, Aug. 6, 1898, p. 3

“Touch-ball” was referenced in newspaper article about the British tour of American professional baseball players. “Base ball, as we were prepared to find, is an American modification, and of course an 'improvement,' of the old English game of 'rounders,' or, as it is called in the West Riding, 'touch-ball.' The children in those districts play it without a bat or club; they strike the ball with the open hand, and have posts or stones at the corners of the playground, which correspond to the 'bases' of the American game. If the ball was caught before it reached the ground, or the fielders could hit the striker with it before he reached the 'touch,' he was out.”

Manchester Guardian, July 31, 1874, p. 5

“Tut ball”, according to a newspaper report of local Whitsuntide festivities, was the game played at one such activity held in Keighley, a parish of the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire: “The Keighley district Visiting Society were treated with tea and its accompaniments at the Rectory, by the Rev. W. Busfeild, after which they amused themselves with 'tut ball'.”

Bradford Observer, May 19, 1842, p. 5

Reference to "base-ball" (or "baseball") appearing in the review of a book about calisthenics for women that appeared in a literary journal. The reviewer criticized the book's Italian author for not being aware of the many athletic activities that English women pursue. Among the games itemized by the unnamed reviewer were "base-ball, a nonsuch (sic) for eyes and arms."

The word "base-ball" appeared at the end of a line of text and wrapped to the next line, so it is not clear if the writer intended it to be hyphenated or if the hyphen was inserted solely for the wrap.

Review of A Treatise on Calisthenic (sic) Exercises, Arranged for the Private Tuition of Ladies, by Signor Voarino, appearing in "The London Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c.", March 24, 1827, London, p. 183