Summary
Game name (and type): 'Crabby' (ball game)
Alternative type: play with props/equipment
Handwritten description of the ball game 'Crabby' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by an unknown author, presumably a student at Ceduna Higher Primary School, circa March 1955. The author describes the game's rules and the terminology employed, providing detailed, hand drawn diagrams of the different scenarios and actions. Played by girls and boys, 'Crabby' involves one player using a tennis racket to protect their legs from tennis balls thrown by the other players. If the defender is caught moving their feet or the deflected ball is caught, then they are out.
One of a collection of letters describing a children's game written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.
Physical Description
Handwritten game description in black ink on lined paper. Features a detailed, hand drawn diagram in black ink on lower portion of page; title in red and black ink. Text printed on one side only.
More Information
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Collection Names
Australian Children's Folklore Collection, Dorothy Howard Collection
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Collecting Areas
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Acquisition Information
Cultural Gifts Donation from Dr June Factor, 18 May 1999
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Acknowledgement
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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Author
Unidentified, Ceduna, South Australia, Australia, circa Mar 1955
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Addressed To
Dr Dorothy Howard, Australia, 9 Mar 1955
It has been assumed that this game description is one of 40 descriptions referred to in a letter (HT41072) posted to Dr Howard on 9 March 1955. -
Collector
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Organisation Named
Ceduna Higher Primary School, Ceduna, South Australia, Australia
Note: this game description was located with other material identified as the work of students from Ceduna Higher Primary School. It has been presumed that this description also belongs to this category. -
Inscriptions
Hand-written: 'Crabby / A boy or girl is given a tennis racket some / one is given a ball and has to throw it / and try to hit the person below the knees. / the person with the racket has to try and / stop it from hitting his legs. If they / move their feet the one with the ball / can say crabby while he is moving and / he is out then the one with the ball / goes in they can be caught out as / in cricket, you must through [ie. throw] the ball / from where you get it.' [Illustrations follow] 'He is out because he is / running the other boy with the / ball has said crabby'.
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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Overall Dimensions
159 mm (Width), 203 mm (Height)
Orientation: portrait
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Keywords
