For the purpose of my younger daughter’s recent party at The Phenelry I dug out my bat and trap set that I made a while ago. I have to admit that it is somewhat agricultural in construction, but then again a really refined bat and trap set would not be right. Not right at all.
Happily, my daughter’s friends thought it was all a bit of a hoot, and enjoyed the game.
Quite right too. I’m very proud of having been, when an undergraduate, a member of my university’s bat and trap team. We played in the local Kentish league.
For those who don’t know, bat and trap is a particularly Kentish game. It is related to cricket, but differs in a number of respects:
- it is ordinarily played in a pub garden, not on cricket pitch;
- there are 8 players per team, not 11;
- the batsman is not permitted to interfere with the process of bowling;
- by and large, the fielding team is not permitted to interfere with the process of batting save, occasionally, to catch the batsman out.
All this has the very admirable consequence that at any one time, 15 of the 16 players can be enjoying a beer, or whatever else they are drinking, without too much interference.
The English, of course, are famous for having invented many of the sports and games enjoyed around the world today, including football, rugby, cricket, croquet, tennis, badminton, darts and downhill skiing. Unhappily, people other than the English have generally got to become rather good at these games, often beating the English at their own game. They typically do this by their rather unsportsmanlike behaviour of practising beforehand. Happily, the English have had relatively little competition in the field of bat and trap. Probably, because no one practices beforehand.
phenell 