Editing Stoolball (section)

===Early competitions and establishment of codes===
Stoolball makes an appearance in the dictionary of [[Samuel Johnson]], where it is defined as a game played by driving a ball from stool to stool.

Stoolball seems to have been one of the earliest [[women's sports|sports in which women participated]].  Activities for women before about 1870 were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature. They were typically non-competitive, informal, rule-less; they emphasised physical activity rather than competition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Richard |title=A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX |url=http://thesportjournal.org/article/a-history-of-women-in-sport-prior-to-title-ix/ |website=The Sport Journal |date=14 March 2008 |access-date=7 April 2017}}</ref>  In contrast, stoolball allowed women to participate in competitive sport.

A "fine match of stoolball" is recorded as having been played in June 1747 by a total of 28 women at [[Warbleton]].<ref name="SxEx-MLSS">{{cite web |url=https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/the-much-loved-sussex-sport-of-stoolball-1-6849306|title=The much-loved Sussex sport of stoolball|website=sussexexpress.co.uk|author= |date=17 July 2015|access-date= |publisher=[[Sussex Express]]|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030090614/https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/the-much-loved-sussex-sport-of-stoolball-1-6849306|archive-date=30 October 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> The first inter-county stoolball match took place between the women of Sussex and [[Kent]] in 1797 at Tunbridge Wells Common on the historic border between the two counties.<ref name="SB-MC">{{cite web|url=http://www.stoolball.org.uk/2008/07/matterface-cup-and-veterans-cup|title=Matterface Cup and Veterans Cup 2008|date=28 July 2009|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>  Sussex women wore blue ribbons to represent the county while the women of Kent wore pink ribbons.<ref name="SB-MC"/>

Sussex historian Andrew Lusted has argued that between 1866 and 1887 the Glynde Butterflies stoolball team were the first women in England to be considered sports stars.<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stoolball.org.uk/history/story/glynde-butterflies|title='The Glynde Butterflies 1866-1887' by Andrew Lusted {{!}} England's first female sports stars|website=stoolball.org.uk|author=Andrew Lusted|date= |access-date=7 September 2022|publisher= |language=en}}</ref> In 1866 the first recorded stoolball match took place between teams of named women representing villages as the Glynde Butterflies took on the Firle Blues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stoolball.org.uk/history/story/glynde-butterflies/|title=The Glynde Butterflies 1866-1887|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref>  Other teams included the [[Chailey]] Grasshoppers, [[Selmeston]] [[Harvest bug|Harvest Bug]]s, [[Heathfield and Waldron|Waldron]] Bees, [[Eastbourne]] Seagulls, [[Danny House|Danny]] Daisies and [[Westmeston]].<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/>

The sport's modern rules were codified at [[Glynde]] in 1881 where the two slightly different sets of rules in the east and the west of Sussex were brought together.<ref>{{harvnb|Collins|2005| p=251}}</ref>  In 1867 the rules in the east of the county were compiled by the Rev [[William de St Croix]], the vicar of Glynde, and were the first rules to be established.<ref name="SxEx-MLSS"/>