Howitzer groups called batteries. The English word ""howitzer"" comes from the Czech word ""houfnice"", from "houf", "crowd", and "houf" is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word "Hūfe" or "Houfe" (modern German "Haufen"), meaning "heap". "Haufen", sometimes in the compound "Gewalthaufen", also designated a pike square formation in German. In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s, the Czechs used short barreled ""houfnice"" cannons to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry, or into charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as "aufeniz" in the earliest attested use in
Old Field, Bray given by "Scores and Biographies" (S&B) which also calls the Berkshire team "Oldfield" in one match. "CricketArchive" explains that S&B and other sources use Oldfield Bray as if "Bray" were part of the name of the ground. It has been established that the ground was called Old Field and was located in the parish of Bray, which in the 18th century included the southern half of what became Maidenhead, where the Old Field Club was based. Maidenhead was created as a separate parish in 1894. Old Field, Bray Old Field at Bray, Berkshire was a noted cricket ground in the