battledore and shuttlecock

File:Beechey-dixon.jpg, Kenneth Dixon playing with a shuttlecock, c. 1790.]]

Games with a shuttlecock are attested to as early as 2,000 years ago, and have been popular in India, China, Japan, and Siam.{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Battledore and Shuttlecock |volume=3 |page=534}} Various traditional shuttlecock games have been played by North American indigenous peoples, including the Kwakiutl, Pima, Salish, and Zuni; they are often played with a feathered shuttle made of corn husk or twigs and sometimes a wooden battledore.Tara Prindle, [http://www.nativetech.org/games/shuttlecock.html "Cornhusk Shuttlecock Game"]. NativeTech.org. In Europe, battledore and shuttlecock was played by children for centuries (the OED dates the words to 1598 and 1599 respectively),{{clarify|date=July 2020}} and ancient drawings appearing to depict the game have been found in Greece.

It was still being played in the College Garden, Glasgow, Scotland in August 1850,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38444125 |title=Scotland |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=XIV |issue=1197 |location=South Australia |date=14 August 1850 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} and Japan in 1890 and 1910.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72864820 |title=Holidays In Japan |newspaper=The Horsham Times |issue=3059 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 April 1890 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=1 (Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26252848 |title=New Year's Eve in Tokyo |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=XXVI |issue=7,488 |location=Western Australia |date=28 March 1910 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Settled by Europeans in 1788, by 1804 in Sydney town, at the home of Sergeant Packer on Pitt's Row, among foods and clothing being sold were... '{{Not a typo|Tamborines}}, and music boxes, set to irregular airs, Battledores and shuttlecocks';{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article626541 |title=Classified advertising |newspaper=The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser |volume=II |issue=93 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 December 1804 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} also commonly sold in the 1830s{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4204160 |title=Classified advertising |newspaper=The Hobart Town Courier |volume=IV |issue=181 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=9 April 1831 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} and 1850s.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12916466 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |volume=XXVII |issue=4003 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=16 March 1850 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The sport was played at the Sydney's George Street Police Racket Ground in April 1850 by Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell and others for 1:47 hours.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59770512 |title=Police Office Sketches |newspaper=Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer |volume=VI |issue=15 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 April 1850 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} It was still being mentioned or played in 1910.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228305092 |title=Obesity |newspaper=The Star |issue=319 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=19 March 1910 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Noting its origins with battledore and shuttlecocks, the new activity of badminton was introduced to the readers within the Australian colonies in 1874,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226073946 |title=Badminton |newspaper=Hamilton Spectator |issue=1304 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=26 September 1874 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=1 (Supplement to the Hamilton Spectator) |via=National Library of Australia}} gaining popularity in the 1920s.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58536702 |title=Badminton |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |volume=16 |issue=781 |location=South Australia |date=14 May 1927 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} Its demise was signalled with the formation of state badminton associations such as in South Australia in February 1930.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54161285 |title=S.A. Badminton Assn. may be formed |newspaper=The Register News-pictorial |volume=XCV |issue=27,606 |location=South Australia |date=6 February 1930 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}

'Battledore and shuttlecock' was used as a figure of speech to describe a rallying argument, debate, or political game.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59772509 |title=The Police Register |newspaper=Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer |volume=VII |issue=72 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=17 May 1851 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207092413 |title=Legislative Council |newspaper=Adelaide Times |volume=X |issue=1713 |location=South Australia |date=28 May 1856 |access-date=26 January 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} An 1841 comment in the Hobart Town Advertiser stated 'Battledore and shuttlecock's very good game, when you {{Not a typo|arn't}} the shuttlecocks and two lawyers the battledore, in which case it gets too {{Not a typo|excitin'}} to be pleasant'.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264587566 |title=Miscellaneas |newspaper=The Hobart Town Advertiser |issue=167 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=10 August 1841 |access-date=25 January 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

• Hanetsuki, a Japanese variant

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Category:Racket sports

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