Summary

Game type: 'Skittles' (ball game)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment, team games

Two handwritten descriptions of different versions of the ball game 'Skittles' compiled by Ross Leavy, a student at East Fremantle Government Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard between 1954-1955. Leavy describes both 'Skittles' games as suitable for girls and boys, listing the age categories, conditions and equipment required for each version. He also provides two annotated, hand drawn diagrams illustrating the games' layouts and the position of players. In both versions, two teams of seven players bowl a ball at wooden or stone skittles in an attempt knock them over. While one team bowls, Leavy explains that the other team fields and can eliminate their opponents by hitting them with the ball.

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 two annotated, hand drawn diagrams; text written on both sides of page.

More Information