Lapta is a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n bat and ball game first known to be played in the 14th century. Mentions of lapta have been found in medieval manuscripts, and balls and bats were found in the 14th-century layers during excavations in Novgorod. It is similar to cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

, brännboll

Brännboll

Brännboll is a game similar to rounders, baseball, lapta and pesäpallo played on amateur level throughout Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, mostly on fields and in public parks, but it is also part of the PE curriculum in some areas...

, Rounders

Rounders

Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...

, baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, oină

Oina

Oină is a Romanian traditional sport, similar in many ways to baseball and lapta.-History:Oină was first mentioned during the rule of Vlaicu Vodă in 1364, when it spread all across Wallachia...

 and pesäpallo

Pesäpallo

Pesäpallo is a fast-moving ball sport that is quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Northern Ontario in Canada...

.

Rules

The game is played outside on a field the size of half an association football pitch20 x 25 sazhens (140 x 175 feet). There are 5 people on the field from the defending team, as well as pitcher/server. This pitcher server stands near the batter of the opposing team and hits a ball in the direction of the batter. The team that bats contains six people. Each hitter gets 2 chances to hit the ball over a 10m line. If they succeed at that, the runners can go to an endline at the other end of the pitch. If a player manages to run between the two endpoints, the get 2 points. Games last an hour, split into two equal halves.

The edges of the field were marked with parallel lines, called salo.

The goal of the game is to hit the ball, served by a player of the opposite team, with the bat and send the ball as far as possible, then run across the field to the kon line, and if possible to run back to the gorod line.

The running player should try to avoid being hit with the ball, which is thrown by the opposing team members. For successful runs, the team earns points. A team wins by either getting more points during the scheduled time or by having all its players complete runs.

A description of lapta is given by Aleksandr Kuprin

Aleksandr Kuprin

Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin , was a Russian writer, pilot, explorer and adventurer who is perhaps best known for his story The Duel . Other well-known works include Moloch , Olesya , Junior Captain Rybnikov , Emerald , and The Garnet Bracelet...

:

This folk game is one of the most interesting and useful games. Lapta requires resourcefulness, deep breathing, faithfulness to your group, attention, dexterity, fast running, good aiming and marksmanship, strong striking hands, and firm eternal confidence that you cannot be defeated. The lazy and cowardly have no place in this game.

Origin for baseball(?)

According to Russian magazines Little Light and Izvestia, baseball was developed from lapta by 18th century Russian American

Russian American

Russian Americans are primarily Americans who traces their ancestry to Russia. The definition can be applied to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to settlers of 19th century Russian settlements in northwestern America which includes today's California, Alaska and...

s.