Summary

Game name (and type): 'Table Tennis' (bat and ball game)

Handwritten description of the bat and ball game 'Table Tennis' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Lewis Smit, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 25 March 1955. Smit describes 'Table Tennis' as a game requiring a table, net, two bats and a ping pong ball, which can be played by two players. He writes that players hit the ball to each other in a fashion similar to tennis, noting variations in the associated terminology. Smit states that the first player to reach 'score six games' is declared the winner.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games 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. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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