Midhurst Magazine Issue 31 Spring April, 2020. The 60th year edition
Stoolball: Birth of Cricket? by Carol Lintott, Chairperson, Midhurst Stoolball Club.
The game of Stoolball originated in Sussex, traditionally played by milkmaids who used their milking stools as a ‘wicket’. The earliest record of the game being played regularly dates from 1450 in Myrc’s ‘Instructions for Parish Priests’ in which he is “unequivocal in his abhorrence” of Stoolball being played in Churchyards.
those ancient milkmaids!” The game’s popularity has faded since the 1960s, but many town and village teams still play friendly matches against each other and at local league level across the South Downs. Most teams run an annual tournament where up to twelve teams are invited to play in two sections culminating in a final between the winners of each section. It took a long time for the sport to be recognised nationally, a National Stoolball Association (now Stoolball England) was formed in 1979 to promote the game and the Sports Council officially listed Stoolball as a sport in 2008. (Not yet recognised as an Olympic sport!)
Circa 1948 Back row - Left to right - Eileen Betts, Kathleen Luff, Olive Shrimpton, Bubbles Goodall, Eileen Ede, Dorothy Davis, Doris Miles Front Row - Left to right - Margaret Thorpe, Maureen Gumbrell, Ethel Brummell (Scorer), Margaret Luff, Jean Holford.
The Stoolball season runs from late April to September, is played on grass, and nowadays is more easily described as being a cross between rounders and cricket. Strikers score by hitting the ball into the field and running between the two wickets. The pitch has either a natural or a 90-yard diameter boundary, and is 16 yards long with two wickets. The bats are willow, with a round spliced face and a long,
As this pre-dates cricket by a century or so, it could be said that stoolball is the mother of cricket, and Ben Stokes should be thankful for
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