Can Welsh Handball Bounce Back From the Brink of Extinction?
The ancient sport of Pêl-Law hangs on, barely, at the last court of its kind. A campaign to revive a related game may help bring it back.
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The handball court in Nelson, South Wales, August 8, 1969. The three-walled court and home to Pêl-Law, the Welsh version of the game, has stood in the town since 1860.
The Nelson court is the last venue for a sport that may have descended from a version brought to the British Isles by the Romans some 2,000 years ago. The peak of Welsh handball’s popularity was in the 19th and early 20th centuries—the simple “ball and a wall” game was popular with miners—but it’s been on the decline for decades as flashier sports siphon off potential players. Now, Dicks and a handful of other enthusiasts hope a new version of the game can keep the long tradition alive.
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During Pêl-Law’s Industrial Age heyday, courts spanned the country, drawn out on the sides of collieries, schools, churchyards, houses, and, of course, pubs. The sport drew large crowds of spectators, including those who wagered the equivalent of thousands of pounds today.
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In the nineteenth century handball (‘Pel-Law’) was a popular sport in Wales. Similar to squash, but played with the open hand, games were played in the yards of pubs in front of spectators. At Nelson (circa 1860), near Ystrad Mynach, the landlord of the Royal Oak built a bigger court to poach the lucrative handball trade away from his rival landlord at the nearby Nelson Inn. The court is the last surviving handball court in Wales.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...pel-law-nelson