about a sport called "base-ball" came in the mid-18th century when a version of the sport played indoors in 1748 in London, where it was played by then Prince of Wales, George III, and played outside in 1755 in the southern English town of Guildford. It was later brought over to the United States by British immigrants, where it developed in the modern version of the sport in the early 19th century in the creation and fountain of the modern baseball rule book, the Knickerbocker Rules in 1845. Eventually, it suppressed the popularity of the other notable ball-and-bat sport which was played in the US at the time which was cricket, by the end of the 19th century. Sheffield born Harry Wright was instrumental in the development of professional baseball in the United States, and he brought his touring team to Britain to promote the sport. Later, at the end of the 19th century Francis Ley, a Derby man claimed erroneously to have had 'discovered' the game on a trip to the United States, and Albert Goodwill Spalding, an American former star player and sporting goods businessman who saw opportunities to expand his business across the Atlantic, funded a second tour to the United Kingdom (Spalding had earlier toured under Wright’s leadership). This continued with the establishment of the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain, the first professional league in Britain. Baseball clubs were formed from well known Association Football clubs Aston Villa, Stoke City and Preston North End, who were joined by Ley’s own Derby Baseball Club. Like the other noted American sport of gridiron, during the First World War visiting US service personnel from the US Army and Navy did a demonstration game at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge in 1918. This was received to a crowd of 38,000 people which even included the king George V. This led to into a growing interest in the game across the Atlantic, and baseball teams were created during the inter-wars. This led to a peak in 1938 when there was a victory by Great Britain over the United States in the 1938 Amateur World Series which was held in England, which is considered the first World Cup of Baseball. The popularity of baseball in the United Kingdom diminished during and after the Second World War by other sports and today, baseball isn't widely played among Britons. Notwithstanding, Major League Baseball