Hittera Ball
| Game | Hittera Ball |
|---|---|
| Game Family | Hook-em-snivy |
| Location | |
| Regions | Britain |
| Eras | 1800s |
| Invented | No |
| Tags | |
| Description | "HITTERA BALL, a game played at Eyam, in Derbyshire. The game resembles the game of 'knur and spell.' A hole is made in a stone fixed in the ground. A spell with a cup at the end is placed in the hole, and the projecting end of the spell is struck by a stick." Another source, citing this source, calls the game "Hitter-a-bll? |
| Sources | Sidney Oldall Addy, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighborhood of Sheffield, (English Dialect Society, 1888: Supplement (1891), page 29. (Submitted 12/11/2020 by Tom Altherr.) |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| Comment | From Tom Altherr, 12/11/2020: "Maddeningly, no time reference is other than before 1891." Note: The Addy/Sheffield source is also described in David Block, Pastime Lost (Nebraska Press, 2019), page 184. Note: In January 2021Tom adds that it would be helpful to confirm that the Hittera reference does not offer a simple typo that uses "Hittera" in place of the word "Hitter" or "Hitters." He adds: "just checked my OED and several other slang/dialect dictionaries. No mention of Hitter-a-Ball. Addy is our only source so far. I just looked in Joseph Wright's dictionary of English dialects and he includes the game as "hitter-a-ball" and attributes it to Addy's reference. He also references knur and spell and that it was played in Derbyshire. "Hitter-a-ball" makes more sense than "hittera," wouldn't you agree? So I agree with David that what we have here is a record of an actual game with no more corroboration than one reference. Anyone want to take a trip to Derbyshire? As of early January 2021, Protoball has no prior reference to "Hittera" at all. Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | From the description ["cup?" "stick?"] it is difficult to picture how this game was played. Where is Sheffield/Derbyshire? Edit with form to add a query |
| Has Supplemental Text |
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