Object number
86/230
Title
Trap and ball,
Collection
Description
A 'flat trap' from a 'trap and ball' game, consisting of a wooden box (its 'tongue' is missing). The game is also called 'bat and trap' and 'trap ball'. A ball would be placed on the tongue, flipped into the air and hit with a bat in the direction of some goalposts. The game belonged to the Vipan Family of Stibbington Hall in Stibbington, Cambridgeshire. It is part of the collection of John Lester Gilbert, a botanist and local historian from Wansford in Cambridgeshire.
Physical description
1 trap and ball game: wood; fair condition -incomplete, bat, ball and pivoted tongue missing, only base of trap remains
Archival history
MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Institute of Agricultural History) – 'Recorder: JMB // Date: 14.10.86 // Description: Wooden box or shoe of a trap ball game. The tongue is missing. // Dimensions: Length: 26.0 cm Width: 6–8 cm Height: 6.0 cm // Associated information: This trap ball or flap trap came from Stibbington Hall, Nr. Peterborough. It belonged to the Vipan family. It was bought at Capt. Vipan’s sale in 1939 // See also Acc. No. 83/16 // Part of the collection of Mr J. L. Gilbert // Flat-trap used for the game of Bat-and-trap. On a tongue (now missing) the batsman places the ball. Then after measuring the distance to the goalposts he smites the tongue on the opposite end to the ball, which flips the ball into the air where it is hit good & hard towards the goalposts.’, Miscellaneous handwritten note – ‘Bat-and-Trap by Frank Illingworth The Country Journal Vol. 1 No.2 p.80 // Legend has it that the opening of Canterbury’s famous Beverlie Inn in 1570 was celebrated with the invention of a new game – bat-and-trap, & over the centuries it has developed until to-day it has something in common with cricket, rounders, [?], football & bowls. // The goalposts were situated at one end of a “green” 20 yrds long x 13 wide; at the opposite ends stand a batsman with a ping-pong-like racket & a bowler with a hard ball weighing 5 ½ ounces. Between the posts stand the fielders, their purpose being to stop the batsman scoring a run for each occasion he swipes the ball between the goalposts. // The batsman stands behind a “flat-trap”, a wooden box with a tongue at ground level. On the tongue he places the ball. His eye measures the distance to the goalposts. His bat smites the tongue on the opposite end to the ball which flips the ball into the air where it is hit good & hard toward the goalposts. // Individual scores of 80 are not uncommon. But the game is not as easy as it looks. The batsman must hit the ball by the third effort or be “out” & he may be “caught”, while failure to send the ball between the posts means relinquishing the bat & returns to the beer at the edge of the “green”!’
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External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_14932.tif - High resolution image