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Rounders for Fun
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History
of Rounders: Rounders
is predominantly an English game.
The game is being played from the Tudor Times.
In the year 1889, the Liverpool & Scottish Rounders
Association was formed and this was the first organization for Rounders.
It is typically a bat & ball team game.
It was very popular in those days in England next only to
cricket. Rounders is still played in Ireland and England.
Baseball, Town-ball, and Softball are all bat and ball games,
played by teams, and have originated from Rounders.
There
is an interesting story of who invented Rounders.
We are now going back to 1903. It was a modest building which was
housing ‘Spalding’s Baseball Guide”. Mr. A.G. Spalding was the
publisher. He was always of the opinion that baseball had evolved in
America and it was out and out an American game! He would not budge an
inch from this belief. An Englishman, a newspaper writer, Henry
Chadwick, was the first to cover baseball. He incidentally wrote an
analytical story for Spalding’s Baseball Guide, which was directly in
contrast to the publisher’s well-articulated belief. He said Baseball
was definitely derived form Rounders. He called Chadwick to his room.
Spalding:
What sort of garbage is this? How dare you write such rubbish in
my guide?
Chadwick:
Sir, Rounders is the parent and Baseball is an offspring inheriting most
of the parent’s qualities. The fact that Rounders was played in 16th
century and Baseball in 19th century is proof enough to
support my writing.
Spalding
was not satisfied. He was not willing to come down from his stated
position that Baseball was “the great American pastime”.
He
said: Well,
I will appoint a commission to find out the origin of Baseball.
He did and in 1907 the commission reported that Baseball was in fact a modified game of Rounders and that is was invented by Mr. Abner Doubleday.Today
Rounders remains to be a sport mostly for schoolboys and schoolgirls.
In 1943, a National Rounders Association was founded, who conduct
tournaments and decide on rules and regulations.
The NRA is recognized by the British Sports Council and allots
grants to aid the sport annually.
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