Birchleaf Ladies - Our History

 

Coming soon......

 

Birchleaf Ladies Baseball Team was established in 1996. 

 

 

The History Of The Game

 

British / Welsh baseball has a rich and diverse history spreading many centuries in the making. References of the game can be found written by Jane Austin as “base-ball” and controversially brought to Britain from across the Atlantic as a new game for the people to play. Controversial in that it was the British who took the game to America in the first place. 

 

The sport we now know as Welsh (or, more accurately, British) baseball dates back to 1892, when the English and Welsh governing bodies changed the name from ‘rounders’ to reflect more accurately the demanding, high-speed nature of the sport.

Rounders had become a popular spectator and participant sport for men, as well as women and children, through the 19th century, especially in South Wales, Merseyside, Gloucestershire, Scotland and Ireland 

However, baseball has roots in Britain which predate those of rounders. There are literary references to ‘base ball’ in Britain as long ago as 1744, when the children’s publication A Little Pretty Pocket-Book tells us “The ball once struck off, Away flies the boy, to the next destin’d post, then home with joy”.

 

Although contests between teams from different areas took place, there was no agreed set of rules until the 20th century. The first representative international match between Wales and England was held in Cardiff, at the Harlequins Playing Fields – now home of St. Peter’s RFC,  in 1908.

Unified rules were formalised in 1927 with the formation of the International Baseball Board, which remains the sport’s governing body, with representatives from the Welsh Baseball Union and the Liverpool-based English Baseball Association.

The game now remains in its heartlands of Cardiff, Newport and Liverpool and whilst there may not be the 8 or so divisions playing in the 80′s, the passion of the game remains at the heart of the game for those who play and play a part in the game.

 

The game is now celebrated, by both Men and Ladies, in South Wales, in Cardiff & Newport, and in Liverpool, England.