The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-05-28
The GAME OF TRAP"
It Resembles Baseball, and Has Been
Played in Ireland Thousand Years.

It Resembles Baseball, and Has Been
Played in Ireland a Thousand Years.
There was game played at the olden
festivals and fairs of Ireland that re-
minds me curiously of baseball. 1t is |
called trap" and as it SO closely re-
sembles Americas national game and
was practised in Ireland more than a
thousand years ago, l shall describe 1t |
here. The first game saw played was
at place called Ventry Harbor, in the
County of Kerry 1t was during an an
nual celebration of the nth of March.
In "a great field were thousands of the
peasantry and people from Dingle and
even from Killarney and Listowel and
Limerick At "a signal the entire con-
course moved toward the hill where l
was standing with friend, and there
remained on the battlefield only fifty
men. These were the players, and this
is how the game was played:
A captain for each side being selected,
the forty-eight players stand in row,
and from them the captains alternately
call each twenty-four men. Then they
| toss for innings and the game begins. 1t
is played with hurley and ball of
hOrse-hair and leather formed like a
! double cone e.. This is placed on the
ground near to a hole, which answers
the purpose of the baseball home plate;
under it is a spoon-shaped piece of wood
called 81 kippeen This the batsman
strikes, and the ball rises in the air
1 when he hits at it. Should he miss three
strokes he is out If he fails to drive it
forty hurley lengths (about ninety feet)
he also loses his innings. And he scores
nothing unless the ball is driven at
least the distance of fifty hurley lengths.
Behind the batsman is the captain of
the opposing team, and his twenty-four
men are arranged in a semi-circle on the
field, about fifty yards from the bats
man. At line distant from the hole
about twenty hurley lengths are sta
toned two men of the in side, and their
duty is a strange one. When the ball
is struck the fielders endeavor to catch
it on the fly or after one hop, and should
they succeed in doing this, with one
hand, the man is out. If they do not
catch it they throw it toward the hole.
And then comes the business of the
two men who stand on this twenty
hurley line" 1t is their duty to prevent
the ball getting within that line, and
they are permitted to strike it as it is
thrown, and so increase the score OF
their friend. Should they miss three
times then the batsman is out, as though
it was he himself who had made the
false hits.
If the ball is thrown behind the player
: the opposing captain endeavors to sc
strike it that it goes within the twenty
hurley line, in which event also the
: batsman relinquishes his hurley. Tht
score is counted by distance only. Fo
instance, nothing counts until after th'
! ball has been struck fifty hurleys
lengths, and after that each length
, counts one, the length of the game
!, being usually FIVE hundred. Or some
times it is decided by the aggregate o
- the innings.
|. 1t seems to me that this game is
Z more scientific one than baseball.
!. requires greater skill in handling tn
!. bat and infinitely more strength, an
II certes the work of the felders is NOR
a difficult and requires absolute skill i
q the QebermlndUlOn O1 INC tnIOW 1ONdA
is the hole. Of course it is not precisel
a similar to baseball-for instance, ther
a. is no pitcher-but the mode is not S
Il very dissimilar that one can not trace
ID close resemblance.
st This game continues to be played
ID many parts of Ireland, particularly
is | the west and southwest; and so gres
;s the intarest taken in If in the Darisht
where it is played that all country sid'
turn out to watch this picturesque te
ie of the strength and skill of the
Us athletic young friends. In the days
the old fairs this game riyaled hurlin
d Robert T. Walsh, in Outing.