Puddox
Puddox is a game that was introduced to Boston Grammar School by Robin Gracey in 1990/91. It is a combination of rounders mixed and cricket. Two teams participate, made up of form members from each class and the teams are drawn randomly from a hat. Often first year teams (now year 7) would meet 15 year old lads but size meant little in Puddox, as Mr Gracey would attest, being quite short himself.
The batting team sends out two players to stand at either end of the 'pitch' which is (as far as I remember) about the length of a cricket pitch. The bowler only bowls from one end, and a small baseball-style ball is used. Bowling uses the under-arm style. The batting team uses a small one-handed bat. Runs are made by running to the end of the pitch, just like cricket. I seem to remember a rule that you can only run if you'd make contact with the ball.
There is a time limit for each team (I think these games were played during lunch hours but that may be wrong!) and at the end of the game, scores are collated and the winning team is put through to the next round.
Puddox outside Boston Grammar School
Some people believe that Robin Gracey invented the game. There is evidence that the game in fact predates its introduction at Boston Grammar School by several decades.
"In the 1950s at my very small village primary school outside Preston we played a game called puddox/puducks/... I have never met anyone else who has heard of this game. I seem to remember it was a kind of cross between rounders and cricket."[1]
"It's a bat-and-ball game, which I remember playing, as 'Paddocks' in The Woodcraft Folk in the 1950s/60s, and I have it in Scout game books (as 'Puddock') from the 1920s..."[1]
"Bronzed by the sun and strengthened by their physical training, the men In the camp have competed during the last ten days in organised sporting events, includ ing basket ball, volley ball, various branches of athletics, "puddox" (a combination of cricket and baseball) and several Indoor games."[2]