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French cricket
French cricket was a very popular kid's game in the 50s and 60s. You used a cricket bat and a rubber ball or tennis ball. The object of the game was to bat as long as possible before going out. You could go out in two ways. First, by being hit with the ball on the legs between knee and ankle. Secondly, by being caught. When you hit the ball you could run away as fast as possible. When the ball was retrieved the fielder would call "stop", then you had to stand still exactly where you were at the time. You couldn't move your feet. So if they were throwing the ball from behind you had to twist. The fielders would get closer and closer until sometimes they were only a foot or two away: We played French cricket. Geez Tony's good: Took ten minutes to get him out - kept hitting the ball all over the playground.
Contributor's comments: The only game I despised more than french cricket when I was growing up in Central Western NSW in the 60s was an appalling torture called "brand 'em bunny". This consisted of a child (usually me) desperately running around and trying to evade tennis balls which were being thrown with great force, at my person, by all the other kids in the one teacher school we attended.
Contributor's comments: Also very well known in WA. The rules were not precisely the same but near enough as to not make much difference.
Contributor's comments: We played French Cricket in the backyard and at school in Girraween in Sydney's west in the 60s and 70s. My children currently at school in Epping also recognise the term and know what the game is.
Contributor's comments: Game played in East Gippsland. When the player with the ball was close to the one with the bat, a 'false bowl' was performed - flicking the hand forward without releasing the ball - in an attempt to have the batter move the bat and expose their legs to be bowled out. If the bowler was too close they frequently copped the bat in the face when they tried that move.
Contributor's comments: In common usage at school in Adelaide in 1970's.
Contributor's comments: We played this game on King Island in the 60s with just the slightest variation to the above rules. The batter could run in any direction (within the predetermined confines of the playing area) and could (in less intense games) turn to face the bowler, the bowler had to bowl (under arm) from where they had gathered the ball.
Contributor's comments: We played french cricket in Drummoyne in the 60s and 70s - they key point of the game was to turn quickly to face whereever the ball went lest you get struck on the back of the legs.
Contributor's comments: There were two variations when I was a kid in Wollongong during the 50s. First was the batsman turned to face the bowler but had to hold the bat upright in front of him, so you couldn't hit the ball far and usually hit it up in the air. Although this was called a girl's way of batting it reduced the field of play and gave more chances of catches. The second was played by the big boys in high school, until banned. A fence paling or similar was used as a bat and a half a house brick as a ball. The batsman was allowed to move when the 'ball' was bowled (underarm) but was out if he made no real attempt to hit the ball. Could nearly be termed a blood sport!
Contributor's comments: I played this game with my brother and sisters in the backyard when I was growing up in Gympie, Queensland. Sometimes there was no running involved (by the batter) and we played it because you didn't need a long stretch of grass like you did for traditional cricket.
Contributor's comments: I grew up in Gawler (SA) playing this game with friends in my street. We had a couple of variations - we used a tennis racket instead of a cricket bat (probably because that's what we had), and an additional rule for catching people. This was the "one hand one bounce" rule. The batter could be caught out if the catcher caught the ball with one hand after one bounce.