Summary

Game name (and type): 'Crabby', 'French Cricket' (ball game)
Alternative type: play with props/equipment, bat and ball games

Handwritten description of the ball game 'Crabby', also known as 'French Cricket', 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. According to this author, a cricket bat rather than a tennis racket is used by a player to protect their legs from balls thrown by other players. If the defender is caught moving from where they first hit the ball 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 blue ink on lined paper. Text printed on one side only.

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