Primary teachers love the game of rounders. They love teaching it. They love playing it. And they love talking about it. There is no equal to rounders. Or at least, that’s how it sometimes seems. But head to some parts of the South of England and they will screw their noses up at the dominance of rounders. If you want a proper primary school sport, they will say, you really should be playing stoolball.

If you’ve never heard of it, you are not alone, but this is not some new fangled team sport imported from the US. Instead, it dates back over 500 years, and though nobody knows exactly when it started, it has origins in Sussex from the 15th century, with the earliest recorded game dating back to 1450.

It was originally played by milkmaids, who used their milking stools as a “wicket” and the bittle, or milk bowl, like a bat. If that sounds a bit like cricket, then that’s because it is: some historians claim that cricket is derived from stoolball, which has led to the sport often being referred to as “cricket in the air”.

Like cricket, stoolball has 11 players a side, with each team competing to score the most runs. There are two wickets (which look like squares on sticks) standing at shoulder height, about 14 metres apart, and batters score by hitting the ball using rounded bats (which resemble a slightly larger table-tennis bat) into the field and running between the two wickets.

Batters can also hit the ball beyond a boundary line to score four or six. They can be bowled out, caught out, run out or be deemed body-before-wicket.

Though an ancestor of cricket, stoolball is often much better suited for playing in schools, says Anita Broad, vice-chair and education and research officer at Stoolball England. “Cricket [is often seen as] the only option for students wanting to use striking and fielding sports in their assessments, but it’s not ideal for all schools or students. You need a specially prepared strip for bowling and lots of expensive equipment - and you need neither of these things for stoolball or rounders,” she says.

“Stoolball is simple, fast, fun and easy for children to achieve at quickly. It’s perfect for primaries, especially using the new formats we have come up with, which keep all the children involved, with little waiting around.”

Those new formats include using “age- and size-appropriate equipment” and Stoolball England has been providing continuing professional development or full school coaching days that can be purchased through the Primary PE Premium fund, says Broad.

Building momentum

So, why aren’t there more schools playing it? Unlike rounders, stoolball receives no funding from Sport England, despite being recognised as an official sport, which means it has, in the past, struggled to gain much popularity outside of Sussex.

“We can’t do the promotion and grassroots stuff that Rounders England can do,” Broad says. “But we’ve managed to get our message out more recently, thanks to social media, and the interest is building outside of the South East. We’re all volunteers but manage to do great things on very little.”

Last year, the sport was awarded £7,590 of National Lottery funding to develop a new coaching workforce, enabling Stoolball England to offer coaching courses to clubs, schools and community groups.

The main marketing pitch is that this is a mixed-gender, easy-access, highly active sport that encourages competence, creativity, and healthy and active lifestyles. Broad says that you can do some cross-curricular work with the sport, too.

“We can hit the Tudors (origins of the sport); Victorians (first modern-style stoolball matches in Sussex); world wars (stoolball was used as a rehab sport for limbless soldiers) and citizenship (looking at how local recreation grounds are used and oral history projects),” she says.

One school that has already taken up stoolball is Polegate School in East Sussex. “We have a long history of adults in the school that played stoolball, so there’s always been an interest there,” says Tracey Wallis, PE lead at the school.

“That was sparked again last year after I went to a conference and spoke to Stoolball England, and they were keen to make sure that the legacy of the sport is known and appreciated.

“They put together a stoolball day at a nearby sixth-form college, where they taught the students how to play the sport.

“In the afternoon, the pupils taught our younger students how to play stoolball in a simple format.”

The children loved it, so the plan is for the school to keep the sport up permanently. “Stoolball is mixed, it’s fun, it’s aimed at all age groups, it’s fairly simple and we don’t need very much equipment - it’s all very straightforward,” she says.

Friendly rivalry

Does this mean rounders is being edged out? Are we likely to see a racket-and-ball war emerging, with fisticuffs over the lemonade on warm sunlit evenings?

Stoolball England is very clear that it is not starting a fight here: the organisation wants a harmonious primary school world in which rounders and stoolball can co-exist peacefully. “I think schools, and everyone actually, should be playing as many different sports as possible and there’s room for both stoolball and rounders in that, rather than one or the other,” says Broad.

“We actually have a Stoolball England v Rounders England challenge match coming up on 24 May, where we will play them at rounders and stoolball.”

Could similar battles begin happening between schools across the country in order to spread the stoolball word? The small group of stoolball schools travelling out like missionaries to educate the rounders masses?

Pick up your (rounded) bats, dear friends - let’s make it happen.

Carly Page is a freelance writer

This article originally appeared in the 3 April 2020 issue under the headline “Schools should take the stoolball and run with it”