The game is much loved at Amherst and Year 5 teacher Danielle Rowe took to Facebook to find out more about its origins – and it appears that the Guernsey Press might have come up with the answers.
She recalls the game being a July tradition as far back as she was ever there.
‘When I started here in 2000 it was already a well-established thing,’ she said. ‘My understanding is that it might have come from a school trip long ago.’
The evidence appears to corroborate Miss Rowe’s inkling, as the old, crooked trophy awarded to the triumphant team in the skerries tournament is inscribed, ‘Gentours School Holiday Camp. Skerries 1966’.
Meanwhile, a picture from a Guernsey Press newspaper published in July 1966 shows a boat-load of Amherst pupils waving farewell as they head off for a trip to Skerries, north of Dublin.
At the time, the coastal town was home to the Gentours Holiday Camp, which was established in 1949 in part to help foster better Anglo-Irish relations. It closed in the 1970s.
While no record remains of the game being played at the camp, Amherst appeared to have brought it home alongside their trophy, re-naming it after the place that they gleaned it from.
‘Amherst was my first job after I got my qualifications in the 70s,’ said former teacher Megs Bailey.
‘And when I joined, it was already a tradition.’
The game itself is something of a fast-paced version of cricket, though players use large, rounded paddles to hit the ball before running stump-to-stump, as in non-stop cricket.
‘It’s like a continuous, Kwik cricket – it’s very fast-paced,’ said PE lead and Year 5 teacher Vicki Travers-Smith.
‘The children absolutely love it. As soon as the summer term starts, they’re always asking, “When can we play Skerries?”.’
School pupils were happy to explain how much they enjoyed the game and the fact that the tradition is unique to the Amherst playground.
‘It’s definitely a fun sport,’ said 11-year-old Katie Waylen.
‘It’s like a mix of cricket and rounders. Also we’re the only school that plays it so that’s cool.’
The school’s annual Skerries tournament is held in the final few weeks of the summer term and, in more recent years, the school has introduced a House Skerries competition. The school has kept to the tradition of playing it only in July – the same month it made its trip to Skerries 60 years ago.
‘You look forward to it because you can only play it once a year,’ said Florence Lihou, 11.
‘It’s very tiring, but it’s so much fun, and when you’re the only one left on your team, they’re all so supportive.’