The Rounders.

The story of rounders’ 200-year journey from a children’s game to a competitive sport for adults and back to being a children’s game.

A Game without a History: Ruminating on the possible origins of rounders.

The Rounder Years, 1849—1892: The development of rounders from a recreation enjoyed by sailors and soldiers of the Royal Navy and British Army to a codified sport.

The Baseball—Rounder War, 1889—1895: The battle for the hearts and minds of British sports fans fought by supporters of American Baseball and English Rounders in the early 1890s.

A New Baseball, A New Rounders, 1899—1918: English Rounders under its new name English Baseball in Liverpool, 1899—1918, and the associated revival of rounders in the city as a sport for female factory workers.

The Pêl Fas Years, 1904—1918: English Rounders under its new name English Baseball in South Wales, 1904—1918.

Anglo—Welsh Baseball, 1919—1939: The golden age of baseball under the English and Welsh codes.

English Baseball Disunion, 1931—1934: The schism in English Baseball in Liverpool in the early 1930s, an event that allowed American Baseball to make a return to the city.

A First-Class Game for Girls, 1892—2026: Rounders’ journey back from being a competitive sport for adults to a participation sport for school-age girls, and the losses, gains, and arguments along the way.

A Game of Rounders: A to Z of first recorded games of rounders in countries around the world; focusing on games featuring adult players, but including games between children when they are of special note. An ongoing project.

Base Ball Sticks and Rounder Bats: When, in 1883, the Liverpool Rounders Association released its first set of rules for playing the game, it included the use of a flat bat, not a round stick, for striking the ball. Here, I present a compendium of sources and developments related to the use of a flat bat versus a round stick to play base-running bat-and-ball games.