Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a wooden, plastic, or metal bat that has a rounded end.

[2][3] Played in England since Tudor times, it is referenced in 1744 in the children's book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called Base-Ball.

Points (known as 'rounders') are scored by the batting team when one of their players completes a circuit past four bases without being put 'out'.

The batter must strike at a good ball and attempt to run a rounder in a counter-clockwise direction around the first, second, and third base and home to the fourth, though they may stay at any of the first three.

[4] The game of rounders has been played in England since Tudor times,[2] with the earliest reference[2][10] being in 1744 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called base-ball.

[11] 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.

[13] The first nationally formalised rules were drawn up by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland in 1884.

While the two associations are distinct, they share similar elements of game play and culture.

After the rules of rounders were formalised in Ireland, associations were established in Liverpool, England; and Scotland in 1889.

[6] 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.

[14][4] Points (known as 'rounders') are scored by the batting team when one of their players completes a circuit past four bases without being put 'out'.

The batter must strike at a good ball and attempt to run a rounder in an anti-clockwise direction around the first, second, and third base and home to the fourth, though they may rest at any of the first three.

The ball is also regarded as bad if it is thrown into the batter's body or wide of the batting box.

In Ireland, the rules of rounders (Irish: cluiche corr) are laid down by the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Disobeying this rule is considered unsporting behaviour and may result in up to two bases being awarded to the batting team or a batter being sent out.

The GAA version of rounders is very similar to softball, the main difference being that the game is played with baseball-sized bats, balls and field.

The main differences between baseball and the English version of the game are that the rounders bat is much shorter and is usually swung one-handed; misses or strikes are not called, so there are no walks or strike-outs; each batter receives only one good ball and must run whether they hit it or not.

Other differences include the posts for marking the bases, which should be wooden, and are preferably encased in plastic sheaths, the layout of the pitch, especially the location of the last base; and the bowler's arm motion, which is an underarm pendulum action, as in softball.