Battledore and shuttlecock

The game is played by two or more people using small rackets (battledores), made of parchment or rows of gut stretched across wooden frames, and shuttlecocks, made of a base of some light material, such as cork, with trimmed feathers fixed around the top.

Games with a shuttlecock are attested to as early as 2,000 years ago, and have been popular in India, China, Japan, and Siam.

[2] In Europe, battledore and shuttlecock was played by children for centuries (the OED dates the words to 1598 and 1599 respectively),[clarification needed] and ancient drawings appearing to depict the game have been found in Greece.

[8] 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.

[10] Noting its origins with battledore and shuttlecocks, the new activity of badminton was introduced to the readers within the Australian colonies in 1874,[11] gaining popularity in the 1920s.