Editing Rounders (section)

==History==
{{expand section|history of rounders in North America, which is completely absent (and birthed baseball in the United States), and globally|date=April 2025}}
[[Image:Aprettylittlepocketbook.jpg|thumb|right|''[[A Little Pretty Pocket-Book]]'' (1744), included an illustration of base-ball, depicting a batter, a bowler, and several rounders posts. The rhyme refers to the ball being hit, the boy running to the next post, and then home to score.]]
The game of rounders has been played in England since [[Tudor period|Tudor times]],<ref name=NRA/> with the earliest reference<ref name="NRA" /><ref name="lloyd">{{cite book|last=Lloyd |first=John |author-link=John Lloyd (producer) |author2=Mitchinson, John |author-link2=John Mitchinson (researcher)  | title = [[The Book of General Ignorance]] | editor = Faber & Faber | year = 2006}}</ref> being in 1744 in ''[[A Little Pretty Pocket-Book]]'' where it was called base-ball.<ref name="Newbery">{{cite book |title=A Little Pretty Pocket-book |year=1767 |last=Newbery |first=John |author-link=John Newbery |page=43}}</ref> In 1828, William Clarke in London published the second edition of ''The Boy's Own Book'', which included the rules of rounders and also  the first printed description in English of a bat and ball base-running game played on a diamond.<ref>David Block (2006) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DBCt7IZfGv8C&dq=william+clarke+1828+The+Boy%E2%80%99s+Own+Book&pg=PA192 Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513090128/https://books.google.com/books?id=DBCt7IZfGv8C&dq=william+clarke+1828+The+Boy%E2%80%99s+Own+Book&pg=PA192 |date=13 May 2023 }} p.192. University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 6 May 2011</ref> The following year, the book was published in [[Boston, Massachusetts]].<ref>[http://www.mainehistorystore.com/noname4.html "The Boys Own Book by William Clarke"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725165829/http://www.mainehistorystore.com/noname4.html |date=25 July 2011 }}. Maine Historical Society. Retrieved 7 May 2011</ref>

The first nationally formalised rules were drawn up by the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]] (GAA) in Ireland in 1884. The game is still regulated in Ireland by the GAA, through the GAA Rounders National Council ({{langx|ga|Comhairle Cluiche Corr na hÉireann}}). In Great Britain it is regulated by Rounders England, which was formed in 1943. While the two associations are distinct, they share similar elements of game play and culture. Competitions are held between teams from both traditions.

After the rules of rounders were formalised in Ireland, associations were established in [[Liverpool]], England; and Scotland in 1889. Both the '[[Knickerbocker Rules|New York game]]' and the now-defunct '[[The Massachusetts Game|Massachusetts game]]' versions of [[Origins of baseball|baseball]], as well as [[softball]], share the same historical roots as rounders and bear a resemblance to the GAA version of the game. Rounders is linked to [[British baseball]], which is still played in Liverpool, [[Cardiff]] and [[Newport, Wales|Newport]]. Although rounders is assumed to be older than baseball, literary references to early forms of 'base-ball' in England pre-date use of the term ''rounders''.<ref name="Name Origin">{{cite book |title=Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game |date=2006 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |page=17|quote=[[Will Irwin]]: It was called ‘baseball’ from the very first, and the name baseball for rounders and its  modifications goes back to England}}</ref>

{{Quote box	
 | width = 27%	
 |The satisfying ‘thwack’ as heavy ball meets wooden bat; the lush green field dotted with coloured cones, shining under the British summer sun; the grass-stained knees as you slide valiantly past fourth base.	
 |source =— Claire Cohen of ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'' on the gameplay of rounders having played it as a girl.<ref name="Participation"/>	
 |align = right
}}
The game is popular game among British and Irish school children, especially among girls, and is played up to international level.<ref name="Rules"/><ref name="popularity"/><ref name="Girls"/> It is played by seven million children in the UK.<ref name="Participation">{{cite news|title=Save rounders! It's the only sport for people who hate sport|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11384071/Rounders-Its-the-only-sport-for-people-who-hate-sport.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11384071/Rounders-Its-the-only-sport-for-people-who-hate-sport.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=The Telegraph|date=8 April 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>