Strewth! Cricket is a foreign import - according to new Australian research

[Andrew of Ware]

Cricket, the quintessential English pastime, was imported to England by foreign immigrants, according to new Australian research.

Experts believe the game was introduced by immigrants from northern Europe who settled in England from the 14th century onwards and that it was first resisted by the local population.

The claim challenges the traditional theory that the sport evolved from children's games played in England since Anglo-Saxon times. And to add further insult to injury, the new evidence that the game had foreign origins has been unearthed by an academic from the country's traditional cricketing rival, Australia.

From the Telegraph

I reckon it is just a cunning Aussie plan to dishearten England before this summer's coming Ashes battle. Professor Paul Campbell of the Australian National University says his ideas are based on a 1533 poem by John Skelton.

In what appears to be a call for the weavers to be driven out of England, Skelton writes:

"O lorde of Ipocrites/Nowe shut vpp your wickettes/And clape to your clickettes!/A! Farewell, kings of crekettes!"

"The poem appears to mix popular anti-Papist and anti-Clerical feeling with widespread resentment at foreign craftsmen. The poem implies that the 'kings of crekettes' should be deported."

Trust the Telegraph to pick up on a story about foreign workers! The poem also mentions 'wickettes' so it is clearly about the sport. The professor also uses evidence from a German academic who says that the word 'cricket' is Flemish in origin.

The professor does have the support of one of the UK's leading cricket historians, John Eddowes who wrote the book, 'The Language of Cricket'. He says,

In my book I show that none of the early mentions of cricket were in the Weald, as popularly supposed, but along the Pilgrims' Way or North Downs where you would expect Flemish weavers to settle for the grazing and the water...

He also says that the area was too boggy in Anglo-Saxon times for cricket. (Although not too wet for the county to be littered with Saxon churches!) Anyway, my childhood images of Saxon shepherds using the wicket gates of their sheep pens for targets and using their shepherds crooks (hence 'cricket') as bats may now have gone up in smoke. I think I'll go off and cry.

[Dactyl]

When I read the title I jumped the conclusion that the article was going to claim cricket was an import into Australia, my response was going to be "Well, Duh!".

And then I read Andrew's posting.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

Cricket, the quintessential English pastime, was imported to England by foreign immigrants, according to new Australian research.

They'll be saying tea isn't from England next.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

It is a bit of a stretch to think of shutting up of wickets as being in the cricketing sense rather than just doors, though it would be interesting to know what crekettes actually are. Maybe he should have 'discovered' a poem referring to weekittes and creekitte written by a Sir Geoffroeye de Boycote...

[Jay Tea]

There is nothing new about this research. Academics can be such shysters

'The Social History of English Cricket' contains all this knowledge in it's historical foreword and it was published 10 years ago. Well worth a read it is too. That cricket's origins are from beyond English shores is common knowledge.

[Andrew of Ware]

Last night I remembered a huge book I have called The Pageant of Cricket by David Frith (another Aussie!) He includes a couple of illustrations from mediaeval documents, one of them being this:



It is from a 1340 manuscript The Romance of Alexander and although it is now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford it is French. It shows a nun and monk with a ball and what looks like an early cricket bat. Clearly early forms of a bat and ball game were being played in Europe at the time as was stoolball in England. Frith's book also has an illustration of an illuminated letter from Psalm 53. It shows a man holding a bat and holding a ball. Psalm 53 includes the line, the fool has said in his heart that there is no God and so perhaps the illustrator is trying to suggest that people who follow useless pastimes are fools.

[Jay Tea]

It shows a man holding a bat and holding a ball. Psalm 53 includes the line, the fool has said in his heart that there is no God and so perhaps the illustrator is trying to suggest that people who follow useless pastimes are fools.

Supporting England over the years? You've got to assume a small sense of foolishness.

[Mad Jay]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

Last night I remembered a huge book I have called The Pageant of Cricket by David Frith (another Aussie!) He includes a couple of illustrations from mediaeval documents, one of them being this:

Looks like a baseball bat to me

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

They'll be saying tea isn't from England next.

I know an English coworker who was surprised to learn that the historical St. George didn't live in England.

Nick