British Balls

Cricket balls are composed mostly as traditional American baseballs are, with a cork center covered with stitched leather, which attribute to the familiar crack when ball meets bat.  The above red cricket balls (mixed in with softball, baseball and other various “balls”) are mainly used for practice as they are made with only 2 sections of covering, whereas the high quality top-league balls are comprised of 4 even pieces- like a quartered orange.

The gent above is Gilbert Jessop, my grandmother’s great uncle, known as The Croucher from his days as a cricket star in England.

Traditionally made Rugby and Soccer balls (2 of more than 6 international games known as Football)

The rugby ball’s distinctive elliptical shape is due to it originally being made from actual pig’s bladders (on the inside, covered in leather). With that said, the sizes and shapes of the game’s original balls varied because the actual pig’s bladders differed in size and shape (a little tough for the league to regulate the pig’s internal organs). The soccer balls above are new “vintage”, made of the traditional 12 panels and hand-stitched together and polished.