Pall mall (game)

Pall mall (game)

Pall mall (pronounced pal-mal) or palle maille was a game played in the 16th and 17th centuries, and a precursor to croquet. The name comes from the Italian "pallamaglio", which literally means "mallet-ball". It was played in a long alley with an iron hoop suspended over the ground at the end. The object was to strike a boxwood ball of about 1 foot (30cm) in circumference (about the same size as a modern croquet ball) with a heavy wooden mallet along the alley and through the hoop with the fewest hits possible.

Pall mall was popular in Italy, France and Scotland, and spread to England in the 17th century. The name "pall mall" refers not only to the game, but also to the mallet used and the alley in which it was played. Many cities still have long straight roads or promenades which evolved from the alleys in which the game was played. Such in London are Pall Mall and The Mall, in Hamburg the Palmaille and in Utrecht (NL) the Maliebaan. When the game fell out of fashion, some of these pall malls evolved into shopping precincts, hence the modern name of shopping centres in the USA: shopping mallsFact|date=February 2007; others evolved into grassed shady promenades, still called malls today.

The game, and its gentler descendent lawn billiards, is administered by the Hampstead Lawn Billiard and Skittles Club, and it has recently been revived by the Village CC, who have been asked to play it in the 2012 Olympics as a demonstration sport.


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  • Pall-mall — n. [OF. palemail, It. pallamagio; palla a ball (of German origin, akin to E. ball) + magio hammer, fr. L. malleus. See 1st {Ball}, and {Mall} a beetle.] A game formerly common in England, in which a wooden ball was driven with a mallet through a …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  • Pall Mall — noun a fashionable street in London noted for its many private clubs • Instance Hypernyms: ↑street • Part Holonyms: ↑London, ↑Greater London, ↑British capital, ↑capital of the United Kingdom * * * /pal mal …   Useful english dictionary

  • pall-mall —  , pell mell  The first was a game popular in the eighteenth century. A favored site for playing it later became the London street Pall Mall. For the act of moving crazily or in haste, the word is pell mell. All versions of the word, including… …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • pall-mall, pell-mell —    The first was a game popular in the eighteenth century. A favored site for playing it later became the London street Pall Mall. For the act of moving crazily or in haste, the word is pell mell. All versions of the word, including Pall Mall,… …   Dictionary of troublesome word

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