Summary

Game type: 'Hit the Post' (ball game)
Alternative types: team games, running games

Handwritten description of the ball game 'Hit the Post' compiled by an unidentified student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard in August 1954. The author describes 'Hit the Post' as a boys' game, played during the football season on the street. They describe the game's key rules, providing handdrawn, annotated illustrations in coloured pencil to clarify their descriptions. To play, the author explains that two captains select teams, who spread out across the grounds. Two players compete for the ball, which is bounced, attempting to knock it to their team members or rovers. Although not discussed in the author's description, it is assumed that the players must kick the ball into the post to score a goal.

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 paper. Features three hand drawn and annotated illustrations in coloured pencils; text written on one side of page only.

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