Before the beautiful game came into being and before bat and stumps helped to define an English gentleman, somebody had to invent the ball. As in all similar cases and particularly the case of the wheel, we find ourselves asking, ‘How could they miss it? How could they not invent it?’ But they did and we ask ourselves what they made do with instead.
One answer is the near misses. The ally was round but small. It was also swirling colour and eye-catching. It served its purpose well – on carpet or tarmac where it chased its fellow marbles. Having invented the ally, the players could hardly fail to see that it was a miniature world, with rotation, latitude and longitude and doubtless an orbit to accomplish just like its very big brother. But the ally remained a plaything rather than a clue to greater things.
Conkers are little globes that come packed in spiky containers and have given pleasure to generations. On the end of a string they engage in a contest. Some conker-warriors like to bake their weaponry; others preserve its power for the great day.
And there all the time was the archetypal ball, the bladder. Nature had got there before us. But the invention took place and it was the assiduous work of one generation after another that led through the clumsy leather article to the patterned ball we are familiar with today – and of course its hard red cousin, the cricket ball.
If a ball filled with air gets several games going, it is also true that solid balls make snooker possible. Perfect manufacture and heavyweight tables give the game its geometrical edge.
Tennis balls are another matter. They have to provide bounce and a readiness for flight. They are inherently losable, like golf-balls. and their waywardness puts them in a class of their own.
THE FIRST BALL
By the time Isaiah 22.18 was written, the ball had been invented, though the imagery of the verse is something I find puzzling. There’s no other reference to a ball in the biblical documents. Of course, it is possible to enjoy games without a ball. Tag needs no ball. Nor do horse-races, boat-races and similar Olympic activities.
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