Elle
| Game | Elle |
|---|---|
| Game Family | Baseball |
| Location | Sri Lanka |
| Regions | Rest of World |
| Eras | Contemporary, Post-1900 |
| Invented | No |
| Tags | |
| Description | A lusty baserunning game, Elle, is played in Sri Lanka. As of August 2020, Wikipedia has this general description of Elle: "Elle is a very popular Sri Lankan bat-and-ball game, often played in rural villages and urban areas. It involves a hitter, a pitcher and fielders. The hitter is given three chances to hit the ball pitched at him or her. Once the hitter hits the ball with the bat – often a sturdy bamboo stick – the hitter has to complete a round or run which includes four possible "stoppings" spaced 55 metres [~180 ft] apart. A strikeout happens if the hitter's ball is caught by the fielding side or if the fielding side is able to hit the hitter with the ball while he or she is in the course of completing a run. The hitter can stop only at one of the three stoppings in the round thereby paving the way for another member of his team to come and become the hitter. The side that gets the highest number of (complete) runs wins the match." The article cites a source with the claim that the game has a 2000-year history, but notes that this has not been documented, and suggests that it may date from the 1900s. It is reportedly played by males and females, and town vs town matches have been common. 12 to 16 players comprise a team. In today's game, tennis balls are commonly used. The batsman strikes a ball tossed softly by a teammate. A 3-minute 2020 Youtube introduction to elle in English was reached on 12/8/2022 via a search of "elle sri lanka traditional sport". The essence of this boisterous game is perhaps conveyed in Youtube clips: in Summer 2020, a Youtube search for <elle match sri lanka> returned about 20 such displays. One unique feature is that a batter does not run bases;instead, a (usually barefoot?) teammate with a head start sprints around a circular path when a ball is struck. Caught flies are outs, and runners reportedly can be retired if hit between stopping points. Ceylon was a British colony, and it is tempting to suppose that elle evolved from a rounders-like game, but Protoball has not seem such speculation. Further information is welcomed. A large Facebook presence reflects the idea that elle should be embraced as Sri Lanka's national game. A 3-minute 2020 Youtube introduction to Elle was reached on 12/8/2022 via a search of "elle sri lanka traditional sport". We have seen other foreign-language elle videos on Youtube. Query:
-- Can we find a written history of elle? -- Are uniform playing rules printed available?
Allardice Score: 8 or 9? From inspecting its several very watchable YouTube videos, Elle may score the maximum score of 9: we cannot yet confirm that foul ground is used, that total runs scored determines the winner, or that uniform written rules are found. In Elle, the pitcher acts as a server, and is on the batter's team. ====== Draft 1.5 of the story of Elle, drafted 12/1/2023 -- To be updated over time. Comments and supplements are welcome.
Getting to Know Elle -- A Progress Report on Sri Lanka's Flashy Baserunning Variant
[Note: This short overview was drafted as a possible submission to SABR's Origins Newsletter, but it was impossible to complete without better data.
Someone informed Protoball.org about an unusual baserunning game known as being played in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in south Asia, and we were interested in learning how that might have happened. Sources in English appear to be limited at this point, but several YouTube videos reflect a joyous and generally familiar pastime. We'd like to know a lot more about how it has evolved.
When I first tuned into a video of elle, this lusty game seemed to resemble someone's attempt to mimic MLB's annual 'Home Run Derby',-- as transplanted, for some reason, to an island nation just south of India. I saw a pitcher lofting a baseball-sized orb to a burly teammate, who slammed it hard with a 'well-seasoned' bamboo bat, sending it into a large, well-manned outfield, often beyond camera range.
But . . . Whoa! . . . in the next instant, a barefoot teammate sped past the batsman at full speed , immediately in front of the batting area, and then traced a curved loop that took him around to the area we baseballers might think of as third base . . . pay dirt, in this exotic game.
Well, welcome to Elle ( say 'elleh' ), Sri Lanka's unique baserunning game! The batsman stood and watched the play unfold. In this game, his job was not to be a runner/scorer. He just can focus on being a good hitter.
Reportedly, a hundred or more Sri Lankan elle clubs are now active, and the collection of YouTube bits are indicative of its nature (try a simple YouTube search for 'elle sri lanka'). One site even lists 10 elle clubs at play in Italy-- a country perhaps has less intrigued by baserunning games than most of the world's cultures are.
Watching a few such videos may prove entertaining but won't at this point provide a solid understanding of the game's rules to a Western reader. One website lists 80 different elle rules but doesn't give us full explanatory detail.
The Game on the Field
In general: The game features teams of 16 players trying to score via big hits during innings limited by the number of pitches delivered or by reaching a specified timer period. Runners (sometimes referred to as 'assistant runners') try to complete a circuit of four 'stopping points.' Retirements come from hit balls caught on the fly and runners hit by thrown balls, or from tagging between stopping points, which serve as safe havens.
I have not yet seen an account of the history and evolution of elle. On the videos, the ball appeared to be spherical, and behaved like a tennis ball would. I have not come across any discussions of how the elle has changed during or since colonial times.
Most videos appear to take place on large fields conducive to long hits. Another source recommends (post-harvest?) paddy fields and shorelines as suitable for the game.
About The Origin and Evolution of Elle
Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, after 133 years as a British colony. It still takes pride in its international cricket successes, but elle doesn't appear to resemble cricket closely beyond its hitting and fielding. I have seen no claim that t he has game evolved from cricket.
One might ask if elle might have evolved, at least in part, from rounders, or, possibly, from earlier forms of English base ball. There is reportedly newspaper documentation of elle being played (with its players wearing "European clothes") in 1911, but current videos do not point to an English origin for elle. They do include some as-yet undocumented conjecture that the game was played on the island many centuries ago. Initial web searches for rounders or baseball in Ceylon and/or Sri Lanka are not productive.
While elle doesn't have much in common with cricket, some traces of past rounders play are seen in today's elle. Games are typically played to two 'innings', which are defined by the number of pitches made or elapsed time, and outs are called when hit balls are caught on the fly and when baserunners are hit with thrown balls while not at one of the four designated "stopping points." on the running routes Thus, the four stopping points (bases) serve as 'safe havens' for runners, as is found in rounders and base ball. A batsman is accorded only three good balls to hit or is retired, as in some past versions of rounders, although current rounders rules allow only one Good Ball to be received by a batsman. Team scores likely mak what baseballers would think of as long (multibase) hits.
I have not yet seen an account of the history and evolution of elle. The rules permit the use of a tennis ball as the batted object, but also allow a dried sea mango (that is cerbera mangha, to all you botanists) as an alternative, and it seems plausible that this fruit served as the ball in the past. I have not otherwise come across accounts of how the game may have changed over time.
Modern Elle and the 1856 Rounders Rules
It may interest readers to compare today's elle rules to an 1856 summary of rounders in the Manual of English Sports, by "'Stonehenge":
Items 4, 5, 6, and 7 appear to apply to elle as now played. This in itself does not mean that elle evolved from rounders -- and the separation of hitters' and runners' functions, the bamboo bat, balls fed by teammates, and other elle features were unlikely parts of early rounders in England.
The Current Popularity of Elle
It is mentioned, on one site, that elle was named the "Sri Lanka National Sport" in the 70's. (Another Sri Lanka site calls volleyball "the national sport.")
Another first impression
[] I was surprised to note how many fielders were in active motion before the batsman actually hit the ball, possibly because they anticipated by setup motion revealing which field the batsman was hoping to send the ball to
A Long-shot Plea for Help from Newsletter readers
If you know a Sinhala or Tamil speaker, we could use a little help here interpreting online accounts of elle.
Some Introductory Sources
We will update our glossary entry as more is learned:
Wikipedia has an introduction of elle at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elle_(sport)
A good general introduction is at https://royalcollege.lk/sports/elle/description/
My favorite Sri Lankan source is https://www.srilankaelle.com/Histry.html
|
| Sources | Introduction to the sport in English, cited above. Wikipedia article [search for "elle (sport)"], which cites as a source https://www.srilankaelle.com/Histry.html Numerous YouTube videos, viewed 2021-2023. See key resources, above. |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| Comment | The Chicago Inter Ocean, March 10, 1889, reporting on the Spalding Baseball world tour, says that in Colombo, Ceylon, they encountered natives playing a bat-ball game that involved soaking the runner, and looked very much like the old "town ball." The report speculates that this form of bat-ball is native to Ceylon, and predates baseball. Was this "elle?" And did this encounter prompt Spalding's later comment that throughout the tour he met with local bat-ball games, suggesting that forms of baseball evolved in many lands. Elle is sometimes referred to in Ceylon as poor man's cricket. John Thorn's "Our Game" blog, Jan. 30, 2023, mentions "elle" and has a old photo of what is probably a game of elle. See https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/whodunit-a-detective-story-302465f5d3cc Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Has Supplemental Text |
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