Bat-and-ball games

A bat-and-ball game is a form of sport. Two teams play against each other on a large, grassy field. The most popular bat-and-ball games in the world are cricket and baseball. It is generally held that all sports of this kind evolved from an ancient pastime that has been labelled "club-ball".

Common factors

Batting in cricket and batting in baseball are similar activities. The batter uses a bat to hit the ball which has been bowled (cricket) or pitched (baseball) towards them. The bowler or pitcher is a member of the fielding team, whose players try to dismiss the batter or, at least, prevent the batter from scoring. While the batting team is trying to score, the fielding team is defending. The teams take turns at batting and fielding. Each turn is called an innings (cricket), or an inning (baseball), or a round (some other sports).

Having hit the ball, a batter can run from one safe zone to another (e.g., the bases in baseball) and score runs. While running, or otherwise out of the safe zone, the batter can be dismissed by the fielding team. Examples are the run out in cricket, and either the force play or tag out in baseball. If the ball is hit to a certain place, or out of the field, then the batter scores a set number of runs. Examples are the home run in baseball, and the boundary in cricket).

"Club-ball"

It is widely agreed that cricket and baseball evolved from an ancient activity which has been named "club-ball". The 18th century historian Joseph Strutt was the first to declare cricket to be a descendant of club-ball. John Nyren in 1833 agreed with Strutt.^[1] In 1851, James Pycroft went further by speculating that club-ball was the name by which cricket was known prior to the 17th century.^[2] A few years later, Nicholas Felix contradicted Pycroft by asserting that club-ball was a very ancient game, totally distinct from cricket.^[3] In 1860, Arthur Haygarth wrote that cricket has "so close an affinity to the primitive and indigenous game of club-ball as to be a direct off-shoot".^[4]

Harry Altham wrote that "most of all did our own forefathers enjoy hitting a ball with that which it was second nature for them to carry, a staff or club, be it straight or crooked".^[5] He saw that routine activity as the "parent tree" of club-ball which split into distinct groupings: the hockey group in which the ball is driven to and fro between two goals; the golf group in which the ball is driven towards a specific target; the cricket group in which the ball is aimed at a target and then driven away from it; and the tennis group in which the ball is driven back and forth between two to four players.^[5]

Although there is no definite link between them, the cricket group must include baseball and rounders as well as cricket itself. John Major began his book on cricket by saying that, at its most basic, cricket is a club striking a ball and the same, he said, is true of golf, rounders, baseball, hockey and tennis. These all involve hitting a ball with some kind of bat, club, racquet or stick.^[3] However, games like golf and hockey are not bat-and-ball games. This is because there are no teams in golf; and, in hockey, the teams do not take turns at batting and fielding.

As for what club-ball was, no one actually knows. Derek Birley asked if it ever was a specific game? He doubted that and thought it was, after all, generic. As he put it, "a catch-all term to cover any form of ball-bashing the citizenry were apt to waste their time on".^[6]