Contents
2000 BCE – Tomb of Kheti-Beni Hassna – Egypt
I accept this is not cricket. But it is very old and is commonly believed to be a bat and ball game played with a hockey-stick style implement. Some kind of bully-off perhaps?
500 BCE – Kouros base with ball-players – Athens
A bas-relief on a base that would have supported a Kouros (i.e. an Ancient Greek sculpture of a naked male youth of noble rank). The image is of youths who seem to be in ball-game playing mode. A similar image to the one portrayed above. Hockey-stick style implements much in evidence, clothing less so.
What is going on?
8th Century – Venerable Bede
From the Life of Cuthbert by the Venerable Bede. Youths at play, hockey-style stick in use again.
13th Century – Canterbury Cathedral
The Six Ages of Man, Canterbury Cathedral, window in North West Transept depicting The Six Ages of Man. The Youth is holding a hockey-stick style implement, presumably indicating some type of sporting activity.
13th century – Manuscript of the Galician Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Young men playing a bat-and-ball game in a 13th-century manuscript of the Galician Cantigas de Santa Maria.
14th Century – copy of Decretals of Pope Gregory 1X
Another bat and ball game. The receiving player is well poised – feet apart, sideways-on stance, eyes level – but, all the same, he still looks a little tense.
14th Century – Gloucester Cathedral
A medallion in the great East Window in Gloucester Cathedral. Around 1360, often associated with golf, but the ball could be moving (it does seem to be above ground level) so could be a cricket style game.
Here is a booklet about the glass at Gloucester Cathedral.
14th Century – The Romance of Alexander
This illuminated manuscript, held by the Bodleian Library, from about 1340 (The Romance of Alexander) shows what appears to be some kind of ball-game. Benny Green in his book, A History of Cricket, is impressed with the line of monastic slip fielders.
14th Century – Ghistelles Hours
Another drawing of a ball game appearing on the edge of a manuscript – Ghistelles Hours, a 14th-century Flemish book of hours probably made for John III, Lord of Ghistelles, and Ingelmunster (Belgium).
14th Century – Cocking Church
An ancient mural dating from the 14th century in Cocking Church, just North of Chichester, depicts shepherds at the Nativity carrying sicks, similar in shape to hockey sticks, but looking heavier and longer.
15th Century – non-cricket image
This is not a cricket image. Instead it presents a less appealing form of medieval entertainment. It shows four blind men tasked with beating a pig to death. The alleged amusement arose from their missing the pig and hitting each other instead. Cricket was definitely a step forward.