stoolball

An 11-a-side bat-and-ball game resembling cricket and rounders. The batter defends his wicket, a 1 ft (30 cm) square wooden board 4 ft 8 in (1·4 m) from the ground, which the underarm bowler attempts to hit. Runs are scored in a similar way to cricket. The bat is wooden, but similar in shape to a tennis racket.

Stoolball is a ball game that dates back to the 14th century, originating in Sussex, southern England.

The game's popularity has faded since the 1960s, but is still played at a local league level in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey.

Stoolball is played on grass with a 90-yard (82-metre) diameter boundary, and the pitch is 16 yards (14.5 metres) long. Bowling is underarm from a bowling "crease" 10 yards (9 metres) from the batsman's wicket.

As it is played today, a bowler attempts to hit the wicket with the ball, and a batsman defends it using a bat shaped like a frying pan. The batsman scores "runs" by running between the wickets or hitting the ball beyond the boundary in a similar way to cricket. Fielders attempt to catch the ball or run out the batsman by hitting the stool with the ball before the batsman returns from his run.

Originally the batsman simply had to defend his stool from each ball with his hand and would score a point for each delivery until the stool was hit.