 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This
sector of the website contains information, publications and
illustrations concerning the ancient history of the related games colf
(kolf), crosse (choule), golf and mail (pall mall) and the possible
relationship between these European club and ball games.
This sector also includes stick and ball games with an indirect relationship with the European games.
Publication |
Author |
Published (in) |
Our books on the internet  |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 September |
Le swin-golf  |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 April |
| Boy caddies in colf, mail, crosse and in golf, even young girls |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 March |
| Rather boys than girls in colf, crosse, golf & mail |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 February |
Clearly unsuitable for women |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 January - Revised chapter from 'Games for Kings & Commoners Part One'(2014) |
Delft blue tiles |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2023 October |
Swingolf |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2023 August |
Stick and ball playing putti |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2022 Spring - Golfika no. 29 (Magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
| Visit at the Nederlands Golfmuseum, Afferden  |
Mr. Ferd Vrijmoed |
2022 April - Golfkrant N° 49 |
| The first clubhouses in golf & its continental look-alikes |
Geert Nijs Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2015 August - Idea & first draft 2022 February - Elaboration |
| The Flemish and the game of 'curling' |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 November - Posting on the blog of a major project of the University of St Andrews Institue of Scottish Historical Research, called 'Scotland and the Flemish people' |
| 'Caveat Emptor' Buyers & sellers beware |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2014 December - Through the Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
| Who needs an ‘Aide’ to play the game |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2014 September - Through the Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
I'd like to teach the world to s(w)ing |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2014 June - Through the Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
Das Mazzaschlagen oder „Alpengolf“  |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2014 April |
| Golf History for Golf Historians & Collectors |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2013 Summer - Golfika no. 12 (Magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
| The Italian traditional games of fiolet and rebatta |
Geert Nijs |
2012 September |
| Did Yuan Dynasty Mongols bring Golf Game Into Europe? |
Wu Linqi |
2011 September - Golfika no. 8 (Magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
Knur and spell & nipsy |
Gordon Taylor |
2009 February |
Nipsy |
James Masters |
2009 January |
Geert Nijs, France
The game of fiolet
Since time and age, a
club and ball game called 'fiolet' is played in the Italian region of the 'Valle
d'Aosta', a very mountainous region surrounded by the highest peaks of the Alps
in the extreme north-west of Italy, bordered by France and Switzerland.
In this game, a player hits a ball with a club as far as possible into the
field. A real 'longest drive contest'. The main difference between fiolet and
colf, crosse, golf and mail is that the ball is not hit from the ground but in
the air. The ball does not have to touch a specific target; it is only the
distance that counts.
The
equipment used in the game of fiolet: the pira (tee), the fiolet (flattened
oval ball) and the eima or mas(s)ette or maciocca (a club with the half oval
club head). – Photo: www.comune.oyace.ao.it
The fiolet (ball) used
to be a pebble stone with one flat side. Today, the boxwood fiolet is covered
with nails to achieve a weight of 35-40 grams. The ball has an oval form at one
side; the other side is flat. Nowadays, also aluminium fiolets appear in the
field.
The eima or mas(s)ette) or maciocca (club) is 40 to 70 centimetres long. At one
end, the club is somewhat thicker or equipped with a square or cylindrical or
half-cylindrical bulge.
The pira (tee) is a smooth stone placed on a piece of cement of approximately
25 centimetres.
The playing field is a triangular stretch of grass between 150 and 200 metres.
From the tee, the field is divided into stretches of 15 metres.
Two
teams of each one or several players play against each other. In turn,
they try to hit the ball into the field. They place the ball with the
flat part upon the pira. With the thick end of the club, they give a
smart rap on the end of the ball. The ball then spins upward, and the
player tries to hit the airborne ball as far as possible into the
field, holding his club with one hand. Depending on the 15 metres
stretch where the ball comes down, the player receives a number of
points. The further he hits the ball, the more points he receives. When
all players have had their ten or, depending on the kind of tournament,
more attempts, all points of the individual players or the teams are
totalled to decide which player or team is the winner.
It is of
utmost importance to rap the ball from the tee into the exact height and
direction to hit it then with full power into the field. – Photo: www.figest.it
On 17th
July 1924, the 'Federaxon Esports de Nohtra Tera' was founded, the first
association for several traditional games, being part of the nationwide 'Federazione
Giochie e Sport Traditionale'. Today the final of the championship is played in
Brissogne on 1st May. The winner receives the 'Baton d'Or. The game
is played during spring after the snow has melted and before the weeds start to
grow and the cattle enter the meadows again. A certain Mr Germano Cheillon
d'Allein, born in 1873, explained: "I played fiolet already during the
last years of the previous (19th century, not only with my friends
but also with much older players."
The game of ‘la
rebatta’
A similar game, 'la rebatta', is played in the
same region of the Valley of Aosta, be it in different communities. Also in this
game, players hit an airborne ball with a club as far as possible into the
field. They play with a rebatta (boxwood ball) with a diameter of 28 to 30
millimetres, weighing 25 to 40 grams. The ball is covered with iron or copper
nails and painted white to retrieve it easier in the field. Nowadays, the
players use also aluminium balls with some dimples.
The 'tee'
in the rebatta game. The player raps on the small black part of the lever. The
dimpled aluminium ball will then spin upward to be hit by the player. – Photo:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-blrL1nYGzcI
The wooden lever has
the shape of a pipe. The bowl of the pipa or fioletta (pipe) has a small hollow
in which the rebatta is placed. When the player hits on the stem of the pipe,
the ball will jump up to be hit as far as possible into the field. The club is
100 to 140 centimetres long, made of ash wood and has a cylindrical part at one
end, the matchocca or masseta.
Contrary
to the game of fiolet, the 'baton' (club) is held with two hands in a reversed
baseball grip (left hand above right hand). The left arm is straight, the right
elbow close to the body. – Photo: http://www.scuole.vda.it
The player holds the
baton with both hands in a reversed baseball grip. It is interesting to see
that the left arm is straight and the other bent arm is not 'flying' but hold
close to the body. It looks like a rather flat golf swing. The playing field is
a triangular stretch of grass up to 250 meters long and approximately 60 meters
wide at the end. This field is divided into stretches of 15 meters. Each
stretch stands for a certain number of points. The farther you hit the rebatta,
the more points you earn. In a tournament, each team has five players. Every
player has twenty attempts, the so-called batua or tsachà. At the end of the
tournament, the points of the teams are added up to decide which team is the
winner.
The tournaments, both
team and individual contests, are held during spring when the snow has melted
and before the cattle take over the meadows. And again in autumn, when the cows
have returned to their sheds. This sport has approximately 400 players divided
into fourteen sports clubs. Like the fiolet players, these clubs are members of
the 'Federaxon Esport de Nohtra Tera'.
The centre of the
Federaxon Esport de Nohtra Tera, of which both fiolet and rebatta players are
members. – Photo: www.territorioscuola.com
If you would like to
see how fiolet is played or rebatta, have a look at
YouTube.
Information derived from:
- http://www.deepfun.com/fun/2012/08/tocati-2012/ : Giardini Cesare Lombroso
September 2012
Knur and spell & nipsy
Gordon Taylor, England
As a young boy some seventy years ago growing up in
Yorkshire, there were two games of which I was vaguely familiar, which I feel
sure you will have come across in your researches. They were both played in the
coal mining area where I was living.
The first was known as knur and spell and played by
the more prosperous people who could afford the equipment. It consisted of a
spring-loaded device which, when released, threw a small round object into the
air, which was then struck with a stick. I believe from memory that distance
seemed to be the main object, but what the rules were, I am not familiar.
The second was a poorer version of knur and spell,
which was known locally as nipsy and sometimes shinty. This game was played
without the expensive launcher but comprised a small hard piece of shaped wood
with one end shaped into a rough point. The player tapped the pointed end,
which caused the mouse as it was called to flip up in the air from where it was
then struck with a stout stick.
Both games could be played on any spare bit of ground
and did not need special playing areas. They were known as poor man's golf, and
they helped to pass on a few hours and make life and times a little more
interesting.
February 2009
Nipsy
James Masters, England –
www.tradgames.or.uk/games/knur-spell.htm
The picture in the 'Afterword' of
CHOULE - The Non-Royal but most Ancient
Game of Crosse, representing a group of players with special bats
around a small seesaw, shows people playing a game called 'nipsy'. This game
was pretty popular, especially in southern Yorkshire in England. In the areas
around Bolton and Barnsley in Lancashire, people still play variants of the
game.
The picture shows how the
'trippet' or 'spell' worked and how the distance was measured by pushing sticks
into the ground at regular intervals. – George Walker, c. 1817
The game is a kind of 'longest
drive'. The player places the ball on one side of a small seesaw and hits it on
the other side. The ball will jump up, and the player hits with his bat the
ball as far as possible into the field. The little stake is one of a series for
measuring the distance achieved. Good players can hit the ball as far as 200
meters. The shape and size of the bat and the rules of the game vary from
region to region, as do the little seesaws.
In the Picardie region in
northwest France, a variant of the game was popular in days long gone, under
the name of 'jeu de la tapette'.
Jeu de la tapette, a popular
game in Picardie in the long gone past. – Anonymous