tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31849551228009827432023-11-15T09:01:19.356-08:00AngrySouthernerOopNorthDuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-40440914546110856172020-10-13T08:21:00.005-07:002020-10-13T10:31:02.219-07:00Seeing the ‘Big Picture’: a historical view of football, society and ‘fair competition’<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">The leaking of Liverpool and Manchester United’s 'Project Big Picture' to, amongst other things, shrink the Premier League (PL) to 18 clubs has, despite an offer to the English Football League to share 25% of future television revenue, angered many – including the PL itself.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">With 14 of the PL’s 20 clubs unaware of the scheme, the PL has stated the plan could have a “damaging impact on the whole game” and their concerns were shared by supporters’ groups and, even, the government, which suggested this “backroom deal” would <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54499998" style="color: #954f72;">"create a closed shop at the very top of the game"</a>. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #121212;">Not known for the promotion of equality, the government </span>– in the form of the Department for Culture Media and Sport –<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #121212;"> stated: "Sustainability, integrity and fair competition are absolutely paramount and anything that may undermine them is deeply troubling. Fans must be front of all our minds, and this shows why our fan led review of football governance will be so critical".</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">The finer details of the plan, and the ironic call for ‘fair competition’, notwithstanding it was the proposed abolition of the League Cup (currently sponsored by Carabao), and the Community Shield that most clearly demonstrates football’s disconnect with its own history, and the integral role that such competitions played in establishing the game's status as the ‘national game’ (at the expense of cricket). <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Without getting into the minutiae of each game’s historical development, both sports had relied on irregular, and unrelated, ‘challenge’ matches until the Football Association (FA) introduced the FA Challenge Cup in 1871. Although this competition was based upon this age-old concept, its elongation towards a cup final gained massive popular support because it created more meaningful matches.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Central to this enhanced meaning was the fact this competition brought together different communities in competition. Cities such as Manchester and Liverpool had long been economic rivals, but improving death-rates and all aspects of cultural life – that now included sport – became important elements of civic pride. This was especially so once the dominance of public-school clubs (most famously the Corinthians and the Wanderers, who won the FA Cup five out of the first seven competitions held) was challenged by what the famous amateur and all-round sportsman, C. B. Fry, described as ‘provincial’ clubs. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Essentially working men’s teams, the success of Blackburn Olympic over Old Etonians in 1883 marked a watershed in the game’s development. And yet, the likes of Fry reacted badly. As he bemoaned in <i>The Strand Magazine</i> in 1902, not only had Olympic abandoned the ‘old arrangement’ of six forwards in order to introduce a ‘centre half-back’ the Blackburn Olympic team had, he complained, trained in preparation for the match – something ‘never contemplated by those who instituted the Cup competition’. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">However, upper-class objections such as this could do little to halt the game’s professionalisation in 1885. Nevertheless, the FA Cup had its limitations as any club knocked-out then had to revert to individual challenge matches that were often one-sided affairs or, worse, frequently cancelled. Indeed, it was <span style="background-color: white;">the all too frequent cancellation of fixtures that prompted the director of Aston Villa FC, a Scotsman named William McGregor, to propose the formation of a league in which all member clubs would be guaranteed a minimum number of fixtures. </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">The creation of a structure that not only guaranteed a full season of fixtures, but revealed – in unambiguous terms – which team was best represented the final piece in a jigsaw that now depicted an entirely modern form of sporting competition. As such, leagues were rapidly established across a range of sports, including cricket, but the public-school elites who controlled British sport reacted so strongly to their meritocratic outcomes, many strived to subvert or hinder sports role as the ‘great social leveller’. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">For the most part this took the form of strictly enforced <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34556804/Deconstructing_the_Gentleman_Amateur_article_version_" style="color: #954f72;">'amateurism'</a> that banished working class participants from competing in sports such as athletics or cycling and led, most famously, to the split in rugby in 1895. At lower levels of sport – specifically recreational cricket in London and the southeast of England – where amateurism was more difficult to apply, cups and leagues were essentially outlawed after the First World War. But, if village cricket became divided on class-based cultural lines in <a href="https://www.academia.edu/20036605/Suburbanisation_and_Cultural_Change_the_case_of_club_cricket_in_Surrey_1870_1939" style="color: #954f72;">Surrey</a> between the wars, league cricket in Lancashire embodied an egalitarian, and altruistic, community spirit. This was exemplified by all Lancashire League’s clubs banding together to keep the popular West Indian professional Learie Constantine at Nelson CC after an approach from the rival Central Lancashire League. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">League competition for most of the twentieth century was the best example of the ‘level playing field’ that sport is supposed to represent, but it has been (despite the re-introduction of cricket leagues to the South from 1968) undermined since the social-economic landscape was transformed by Thatcherism, which completed the abandonment of the post-war consensus. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Like various public services and industries, football (and cricket) has been steadily parcelled up and sold off into private hands (the Indian Premier League being the most glaring example), whereas market-based economics and the classic doctrine of economic neoliberalism – internal competition and / or the introduction of league tables – have been imposed upon the education sector where the self-selected ‘Russell Group’ of universities appear to have their own ‘Big Picture’ agenda. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Whether or not universities do, indeed, compete against each other (for students and / or funding or 'reputation') is open to debate, and yet avaricious capitalism, by its very nature, encourages consumption and exponential growth. But is everything ‘bigger and better’ for it? It would appear that this neo-liberal approach has reached a point – across all sectors of society – where it may only consume itself. Accordingly, this regrettable attempt by two of the game’s most famous and wealthiest clubs to grab an even larger slice of the economic pie is entirely predictable because there is, under such an ideological regime, nowhere else to go. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm;">Those in government, like those with influence over British sport, need to realise that the economic trajectory of the last 40 years has not only abandoned any pretence of a level playing field, it is – as the Covid crisis has ably demonstrated – no longer sustainable. If football’s pyramid or, dare I say it, civil society at large, is to thrive the people of Britain, and the institutions that shape it, need to re-discover the altruism demonstrated by the members of the Lancashire Cricket League during the 1930s because, ultimately, we rise and fall together. <o:p></o:p></p>DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-76365499611276034172019-03-18T01:44:00.004-07:002019-03-20T02:19:22.243-07:00Deconstructing the Gentleman Amateur<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">From rather unassuming origins in the late eighteenth century, the ‘gentleman amateur’ came to dominate the British Empire in both discourse and practice. In academic terms the concept is best understood as a literary trope but their influence traversed a wide range of real world activities and interests.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a>It was, however, through sport that such men were most prominent and ‘seen’ to embody an ideal of British masculinity. However, the ‘respectable’ sporting culture of the late-Victorian bourgeois gentleman amateur was entirely different to the more ‘hedonistic’ culture of the aristocratic gentlemen of the previous century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite a vast literature referring to ‘gentlemanly amateurism’ in sport, historians have all but ignored this transition and two distinct interpretations of this ‘upper class’ sporting culture have developed: Whereas James Mangan </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">suggests public school ‘athleticism’ was the moral and educational expression of Victorian ‘manliness’ and ‘muscular Christianity’, John Hargreaves argues that the hegemonic culture of ‘amateurism’ was used to justify social segregation in sport.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a>Mangan’s ideas, following the widespread academic rejection of Marxism in the 1990s, appear to have won out but the evidence sides with Hargreaves. Nonetheless, neither author fully examined the philosophical origins of ‘gentlemanly amateurism’. Indeed, historians have treated this social and cultural construct as if it arrived fully formed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Only one author has attempted such a task, but Lincoln Allison’s claim that historians and sociologists ‘mistakenly’ portrayed amateurism as an ideological, rather than a philosophical, approach to sport are deeply flawed.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></span></span></a>Nevertheless, understanding the philosophical origins of both the gentleman and the amateur helps researchers to better appreciate the meaning and utility of such terms and how these changed in relation to broader issues in contemporary society. Additionally, in a move away from economic determinism, such an analysis highlights the way in which the new social and sporting elites utilised structural (public schools, universities, sports administration and rules), cultural (the media and literature), and linguistic (Latin, Classical philosophy and aesthetics) power within and outside of sport. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Defining the ‘gentleman amateur’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Although it would remain an ill-defined concept it was broadly agreed that any genteel young man, with reasonable energy and good character, provided with a public school education, qualified as a ‘gentleman amateur’. Or, as one commentator put it: ‘the old theory of an amateur was that he was a gentleman and the two were simply convertible terms’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Outside of politics, the vast majority of gentlemen amateurs were anonymous ‘hobbyists’ operating away from the public eye and such men were, at their best, simple enthusiasts who pursued an interest for its own sake. Very occasionally, their ‘dabbling’ produced significant scientific breakthroughs: Charles Darwin and Henry Fox Talbot for instance. And yet the attitudes and activities of many often hindered progress or infringed upon the livelihoods and freedoms of lower-class professionals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Nowhere was this intrusion more pronounced than in sport and, as the social and economic context in which sport operated changed, who or what constituted a gentleman amateur was vigorously contested.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[iv]</span></span></span></a>Athletics and rowing fretted over the presence of labourers, tradesmen and coaches during the 1880s; the sport of rugby split into what became amateur and professional codes in 1895; and the ‘gentlemen’ running English cricket enforced degrading distinctions upon poorly paid professionals until 1963.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[v]</span></span></span></a>And yet, their predecessors would have deemed these debates unnecessary …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Aristocratic origins <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The earliest reference to a gentleman amateur in sport emanates from 1788, and it happens to refer to a boxer called Mendoza who had fraudulently borrowed money from an unnamed ‘gentleman amateur of the science’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[vi]</span></span></span></a>Early media interest was usually linked to money, social status and scandal but the athletic exploits of ‘gentleman amateurs’, such as a man called Tolly who, in 1827, completed six laps of a graveyard in less than twenty minutes for 100 sovereigns, were increasingly deemed noteworthy.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[vii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">‘Blood’, or what became known as ‘good breeding’, had long been central to a gentleman’s nobility but this had changed by the early-eighteenth century. Although gentlemen of the period had inherited a carefully cultivated concept of chivalrous behaviour, notions of ‘birthright’ and the old conception of <i>noblesse oblige </i>– </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">the idea that those with wealth, power and status accept the social responsibilities that come with them – </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">had been diluted by the growth of a new trading middle class. Indeed, Daniel Defoe claimed as early as 1725 that ‘trade is so far from being inconsistent with a gentleman, that, in short, trade in England makes a gentleman’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[viii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">By the time the grandsons of Defoe’s contemporaries were born, the behaviour expected of gentlemen had altered further as notions of civic humanism gained influence. As this concept liberated ‘gentlemen’ to act more like citizens, it was <u>benevolence</u>, rather than <u>obligation</u>, which came to inform gentlemanly behaviour.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[ix]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Gentlemen now had more freedom to act as they pleased and many sporting gentlemen took full advantage </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">of this more relaxed atmosphere. Accordingly, they ‘loved’, or contributed towards, the very aspects of sport that their successors would attempt to eradicate. Namely: gambling, a readiness to take on all-comers in often violent competition as well as sharing strongly felt communal identities and exploiting the commercial forces that helped to popularise cricket and other team sports. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In such an environment, the term ‘gentleman’ often referred to ‘anyone worth flattering for profit’. But serious sporting aristocrats, such as the Earl of Tankerville, would have felt little shame in being known for ‘nothing but cricket-playing, bruising and keeping low company’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[x]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The role that <i>noblesse oblige </i>played in enabling patrician and plebian to play together may be contested but it is clear that any on-field setback at the hands of a lower class competitor could be easily discounted. Sporting gentlemen – even during the early decades of the nineteenth century – enjoyed an unassailable social position that <i>The Field</i>, in 1913, summarized thus:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">One great distinction, far sharper than it is today, cut across all sport, and, indeed every department of activity, the distinction, namely, between those who were gentlemen and those who were not. Nothing could alter or qualify this distinction of birth. If a gentleman ‘turned professional,’ as we say, he remained a gentleman. … In fact, when a gentleman and not-gentleman met in athletic rivalry … the feeling that it was ‘man to man’ yielded to the knowledge that it was man against gentleman.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xi]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">This particular incarnation of the sporting gentleman would gradually disappear during the middle decades of the nineteenth century as the repercussions of a maturing industrialised society began to take effect. But although their heirs to the title had profited directly from the opportunities presented by industrial capitalism and unprecedented peaks in urbanisation, this new generation of ‘gentlemen’ – who emerged in ever larger numbers from the public schools after 1860 – were less inclined to compete with the working classes on equal terms. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The public schools<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Originally, the public schools had been established for the charitable education of poor disadvantaged boys, but the social and economic background of scholars, despite the most basic living standards, changed significantly as more aristocratic boys were sent to schools such as Eton, Westminster and Harrow.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xii]</span></span></span></a>The gradual displacement of the poorer scholars led to vast differences in status between the pupils and those supposedly in charge, and the resulting power vacuum manifested itself in a number of open rebellions, including one organised by Byron at Harrow in 1805.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xiii]</span></span></span></a>As much as the distance from families and an extremely harsh environment were deemed an important part of the ‘character building’ process, the levels of ill discipline and violence were such that many within and outside of the system deemed reform necessary.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref14" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xiv]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Although attempts to control the pupils had been made at other schools, it was the changes established by Thomas Arnold at Rugby between 1828 and 1842, which were to be most successful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Arnold sought to regain control of his school by instilling a code of Christian conduct and good ‘character’ in the future leaders of nation and Empire but, significantly for an apparent educationalist, intellectualism was a low priority. As Arnold put it himself: ‘what we must look for here is, first, religious and moral principle; secondly, gentlemanly conduct; thirdly, intellectual ability’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref15" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xv]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite his personal dislike of games his aims were most easily communicated via participation in sport but his reform of the prefect-fagging system only served to set in place the conditions necessary for the development of the public school cult of ‘athleticism’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref16" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xvi]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The privileging of athleticism over academic achievement may have led to Rudyard Kipling’s satirical image of the ‘flannelled fool’ and the ‘muddied oaf’ but the Clarendon Commission of 1864 was at pains to point out that the debt owed by ‘English’ society to the public schools was hard to estimate. The scholar’s ‘capacity to govern others and control themselves, their aptitude for combining freedom with order, their public spirit, their vigour and manliness of character … their love of healthy sports and exercise’ meant the public school system had, the Report concluded, ‘the largest share in moulding the character of the English gentleman’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref17" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xvii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Nonetheless, Christian values, despite their alleged primacy, had little influence upon ‘gentlemanly’ behaviour inside or outside of these schools. Rather than the Bible it was, instead, the chivalrous ideals portrayed in Sir Walter Scott’s best-selling <i>Waverley </i>novels (1814-1831) such as <i>Ivanhoe </i>(1819) that proved most popular. Arnold may have also been hostile towards ideals that placed personal allegiances before those to God but Scott had created a model for young middle class men that Robert Baden-Powell was still promoting almost a century later.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref18" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xviii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">That said, this did not stop ideologists such as the Rev. James Pycroft, author of the influential <i>The Cricket Field </i>(1859), co-opting Christian values to recast sport in their own image. But, as much as being ‘orderly and sensible’ was a significant departure from the hedonistic approach of the previous century, this ‘moral’ sporting culture was, increasingly, something that only those with status, time and money to spare could achieve.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref19" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xix]</span></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Image versus reality<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Having competed amongst themselves at the various public schools and ancient universities, a sense of exclusiveness began to pervade the way in which the classes approached leisure and sporting competition. The creation of embryonic town councils had provided the middle classes with their first route to power and this new political class began to introduce a new, alternative, culture of respectable behaviour (and respect for property) entirely different to that of the previous century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">As much as the new middle classes wished to outlaw or abandon ‘rough’ pre-industrial pastimes, such as folk football or Guy Fawkes celebrations, such was the resistance among indigenous elites that it often took many decades before such customs disappeared. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In the upper echelons of British sport where national sporting bodies, frequently prefixed by the term ‘amateur’, were controlled by the public school elites things were a little easier to manipulate. But as much as they were able to dictate terms debates relating to the ‘vexed question as to the <i>bone-fide </i>Gentleman Amateur’ were commonplace by the early 1870s. Those that defended the designation thought the complaints of amateur ‘tradesmen and their assistants’ ‘erroneous’. As one correspondent to <i>The Standard </i>bewilderingly proclaimed:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The introduction of the word gentleman appears to be their stumbling block, and <i>pons asinorum</i>, Hamlet says – “To be an honest man, is to be one among 10,000”, had he said “To be a gentleman”, one would feel inclined to add a good many more noughts onto that figure, it would therefore be difficult and out of place here to attempt to describe this rare animal.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref20" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xx]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The increasingly widespread use of the prefix ‘gentleman’ was indicative not of their alleged rarity, but the fact that it was essentially possible for anyone to be an amateur. The simplest definition, written by Charles Box in 1877, defined an amateur as: ‘A non-professional player, whether patrician or plebian’ and had such a straightforward definition been adopted British sport and society would undoubtedly look very different today.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref21" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxi]</span></span></span></a>But a utopian definition that encouraged ‘classless’ sport was exceedingly naïve considering an athlete’s ‘gentlemanly’ status had segregated upper-class men from their working-class counterparts since the turn of the century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Gentlemen versus Players cricket matches from 1806 aside, the introduction of rowing races exclusively for gentleman amateurs in the 1840s had led to a rise in disputes and ‘surprising’ displays of ungentlemanly temper.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref22" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxii]</span></span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Professional boatmen, who spent their working lives upon the water, notwithstanding, the presence of a ‘shovel-handle maker’, or other men not qualifying as a ‘gentleman amateur’, was usually only questioned by losing crews and their objections were, initially at least, often dismissed as ‘frivolous’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref23" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxiii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Defending the introduction of the Manchester and Salford Regatta Club’s own definition, the Hon. Sec. Edward Chew claimed theirs was ‘the most liberal construction ever put upon the term’, and it was designed to do no more than ‘keep the two classes of rower apart’. Physical prowess formed the basis of these ‘classes’ and Chew argued, not unreasonably, in 1849 that it ‘cannot be supposed that a merchant’s clerk … is physically competent to contest with a machinist or carpenter’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref24" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxiv]</span></span></span></a>But, regardless of the ‘handicapping’ rationale behind such rules, certain sections of the media were quick to highlight the obvious social connotations involved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">‘Aquaticus’ was openly critical of the rowing fraternity who ‘thought it beneath the dignity of a gentleman to row in a match against a waterman’, while ‘gentlemen constantly engage in cricket matches with professional players, and are not considered to lower themselves by doing so’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref25" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxv]</span></span></span></a>Men such as such as Herbert Playford, described as ‘the greatest gentleman amateur that ever lived’, undermined any pretense of amateur purity further by competing in races at Henley that attracted a good deal of gambling and awarded valuable prizes.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref26" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxvi]</span></span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite defensive </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">claims that such prizes were merely ‘symbolic’, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">quarrels over prizes and who was, or was not, a gentlemen amateur now replaced arguments over disputed bets in a number of court cases. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In a widely reported spat over some fish knives and forks worth £10 in 1873, a ‘collector’ for the carriers Messrs. Chaplin and Horne called Wheeler, who had won an athletics race at Crystal Palace, was denied his prize for failing, retrospectively, to meet the criteria required of a ‘gentleman amateur’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref27" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxvii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Elsewhere, an athlete called Peters was disqualified from a race ‘open to all amateurs’ due to his appearance, and strictly enforced regulations at the Amateur Athletic Club’s Bicycle Championship reduced an original field of twenty to just three.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref28" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxviii]</span></span></span></a>Giving evidence to another court case over a disputed prize in 1875 the editor of <i>Athlete</i>, Walter Platt, contentiously stated that ‘it was well enough understood what the term meant; it was a <i>lex non scripta</i>, and could not be found in any code of rules’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref29" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxix]</span></sup></sup></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Cases such as these marked an important point in the transition between the traditional culture of socially open competition for high stakes, and a new culture that encouraged sport for it’s own sake, but only within socially discrete races or within sides where teammates were treated very differently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Confusion was understandable in this period of social and cultural flux, but it was clear Defoe’s proclamation of 1725 no longer applied. Like the witness who considered himself entitled, ‘despite earning a weekly wage’, to be called a gentleman amateur, many tradesmen now found their source of income denied them amateur, let alone gentlemanly, status.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref30" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxx]</span></sup></sup></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Although prepared to compete as ‘pure’ amateurs, the Amateur Rowing Association’s refusal to acknowledge a petition from a group of tradesmen led to a split in rowing that foreshadowed the schism in rugby. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The establishment of a separate ‘Tradesmen’s Association’, the National Amateur Rowing Association, in 1890 not only resulted in the duplication of administrative effort, it signaled how farcical amateur regulations were becoming.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref31" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxi]</span></span></span></a>Whereas University rowing crews, who had accepted ‘expenses paid’ training in 1898,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref32" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxii]</span></span></span></a>went unpunished soldiers, representing the Royal Artillery Football Club in Portsmouth, were banned from the English Amateur Cup the following year for a similar ‘offence’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref33" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxiii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">British sport was now in danger, if it had not already, of tying itself up in knots over what the <i>Pall Mall Gazette </i>called ‘idiotic distinctions’ that were fast becoming synonymous with incompetence elsewhere.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref34" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxiv]</span></sup></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite strong associations with the wealthier classes the omnipresence of amateurs was being ruthlessly satirised by the late 1860s. As one journal bemoaned: ‘So inevitable is the amateur becoming, and so extensive his range of operations, that the time is not distant when the greatest mark of distinction to which a gentlemen can aspire will be to be pointed out as “the man who does nothing”’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref35" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxv]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Their reluctance to compete on equal terms with working class opponents not only trivialised any athletic achievement it was also deemed emasculating. Having declared the ‘speedy greengrocer’ the ‘terror of the British athlete’,<i>The Graphic </i>even suggested that ‘many a gentleman amateur might envy, and … look upon with dread’ the prowess of female rowing crews. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">No journalist would have dared to accuse (even obliquely) the likes of Tankerville – who had been up in court for flogging a coachman – of such a crime against British masculinity. It was not, however, professionalism that threatened the pre-eminent position of the gentleman amateur. As <i>The Field </i>explained further in 1913:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In the present stage of evolution games have been both democratized and universalized. As soon as the patronage of the public was assured it was inevitable that some games should be exploited on business principles. This result has had its good influences. There is one interesting effect of public patronage generally, which shows how public games react upon social life; that is, that not the professional only, but the amateur also, have become in a sense ‘the servants of the public’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref36" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxvi]</span></sup></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">This unintended, and most unwelcome, consequence was to be avoided at all costs and many of those in control made the conscious decision to make a number of sports <u>less popular</u>. The cups and leagues that had boosted the popularity of football after 1871 were to be resisted in rugby union until the 1980s and, despite the introduction of Test matches and the nationwide popularity of cups and leagues prior to 1914, cricket’s establishment also chose to reject such meritocratic impulses. Whereas leagues continued in the Midlands and the North, the Club Cricket Conference – founded by a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the cricket establishment in 1916 – all but outlawed 'competitive' cricket in the South of England and the ‘feudalistic’ MCC ensured the County Championship remained an idiosyncratic mess into the 1960s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Had cricket not been so well established it may have gone the same way as rugby union but, despite calls for an ‘all amateur’ County Championship and a prohibitive rise in entrance fees, the game now relied upon the professionals – almost always the best players – and public support. In order to maintain their privileged position in sport amateurs presented themselves as ‘servants of the game’ and chose to distinguish themselves from working class professionals by playing, winning or, even, <u>losing</u> ‘gracefully’.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">This aesthetic approach also originated from the public schools and the extent that the Classics have influenced British sport in terms of ‘technique of practice and training … procedure and management, and even terminology’ should not be underestimated.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref37" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxvii]</span></span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">H</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">eadmasters’, such as G. E. L. Cotton of Marlborough College, used the pulpit to ‘expound a Christian version of the Graeco-Renaissance concept of the “whole man”’,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref38" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxviii]</span></sup></sup></a>whereas sporting ideologists co-opted the term <i>mens sana in corpore sano </i>in much the same way.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref39" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xxxix]</span></sup></sup></a>S</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">chools, such as Eton and Harrow, may have become synonymous with sport, but they had also become ‘the enclaves for the upper and the wealthier middle classes for whom the Classics served no other purpose than that of a status symbol’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref40" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xl]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The use of Latin pervaded writing on a number of amateur sports, but it was in cricket that men such as C. B. Fry, himself a Classical scholar, most commonly employed this dead language. Fry, despite earning a good deal from the game and personal endorsements, tellingly described cricket as ‘a cult and a philosophy inexplicable to the <i>profanum vulgus</i>... the merchant minded ... and the unphysically intellectual’, was one of many who would employ classical ideals as an ideological shield.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref41" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xli]</span></sup></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The gentlemen amateurs, their biographers, and sycophantic journalists such as Neville Cardus utilised classical concepts such as <i>areté</i>: the combined excellence of mind, body and soul (the cult of the all-rounder);<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref42" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlii]</span></span></span></a><i>agon</i>: competition for glory and honour (but not financial reward); aesthetics or beauty,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref43" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xliii]</span></span></span></a>and Plato’s ideas in relation to the intrinsic, extrinsic and instrumental value of sport.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref44" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xliv]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Amateurs played for the right reasons (for the intrinsic ‘love’ of sport), in the right way (the Corinthian ideal of fairness and honour), and in an effortless (aesthetic) style but, most commonly, they chose to misdirect the public away from their own shortcomings by highlighting how the professionals failed to live up to these idealised standards. By portraying the professionals as machine-like specialists who took part in sport for entirely mercenary reasons, the 'amateurs' – even if their gentlemanly and amateur status, sense of ‘fair play’ and sporting competence was in doubt – gained an air of moral and philosophical superiority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Unsurprisingly, those advocating the idea of ‘sport for sport’s sake’ wished to elicit a very different outcome to the aesthetics movement of the late nineteenth-century, and its call for ‘art for art’s sake’. Whereas the aesthetics movement, which sought to separate art from the production of religious, moral or political meaning, emerged from outside of the social and political elite the advocates of amateurism such as Lord Burghley (Eton), Lord Harris (Eton), C. B. Fry (Repton) and J. E. K. Studd (Eton) <i>were </i>the establishment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">British sport was thus saddled with religious, moral, political, social and racial meaning that elevated a very particular class of ‘Englishman’ above all others. Foreigners and colonials, be they white or black, were easy targets as were the working classes at home but there was also a regional dimension employed. In cricket, northern players and spectators alike were libelously accused of (instrumental) aggression and partisanship, an appreciation of unaesthetic ‘big strokes’ and a love of gambling upon matches,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref45" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlv]</span></span></span></a>whereas their ‘brethren of the south’, were thought to have liked their cricket ‘for its own sake, unadulterated by commercial influences’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref46" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlvi]</span></sup></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">These regional stereotypes remain influential today because the administration of British sport and its image remained the preserve of private ‘upper class’ clubs (the MCC and the All England Club for instance)and their acolytes late into the twentieth century. There were, however, occasional incidences where this image was subverted. But as much as Alf Tupper, the chip guzzling ‘Tough of the Track’, scored regular victories over the ‘toffs’ of the Amateur Athletics Association in the pages of <i>The Rover</i>,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial";"> there was no such happy ending for </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">John Tarrant who became a folk hero known as the ‘Ghost Runner’ during the 1950s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite a good deal of talent, Tarrant was effectively banned for life, at just 20 years old, by the Amateur Athletic Association <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">for winning a modest £17 for a series of boxing bouts as a teenager. Tarrant, still eager to compete, became infamous for gatecrashing races and he regularly outperformed internationally recognised runners. Despite this, he was never allowed to represent his country and he died a bitter man aged just 42.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Indeed, international success was to be fiercely resisted if athletic success meant those emerging from the elite public schools and universities were to become what one headmaster tellingly called ‘professional slaves’. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Although the importance of winning for national prestige was increasingly recognised, their reluctance to promote talent, no matter where it came from or, even, train in a serious manner led to plenty of international embarrassments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">An especially poor performance at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 had led to an enquiry chaired by J. E. K. Studd, whereas the winless summer of 1948 against Don Bradman’s ‘Invincibles’ had also led to much soul searching.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref47" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlvii]</span></sup></sup></a>However, nothing – not even repeated defeats at the hands of the colonials – was to interfere with the <i>status quo</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The editor of the <i>Kent County Cricket Club Year Book</i>, in response to the losses to Bradman’s Invincibles, summed up the cricket establishment’s conservatism thus: ‘Even to beat the Australians we are not prepared to sacrifice the spirit and rivalry of our village, club and county grounds. For the spirit is as much cricket to us as the finest strokes in the game’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref48" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlviii]</span></sup></sup></a>What this ‘spirit’ was and who exactly the term ‘us’ referred to remained vague, but the game was not being run in the interests of the general public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In August 1956, the respected think tank <i>Political and Economic Planning </i>published <i>The Cricket Industry</i>, which noted that ‘there have been, and still are, criticisms of county cricket as a preserve of snobbery and class distinction’, and that the MCC Committee was ‘drawn from a limited group of people’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref49" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[xlix]</span></sup></sup></a>That same year the University of Birmingham’s <i>Britain in the World of Sport </i>called for greater state involvement and funding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Sir John Wolfenden’s report <i>Sport and the Community </i>(1960) was more cautious and suggested the abolition of the amateur distinction ought to be brought about not by government but ‘the influence of public opinion on the Governing Bodies’.</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref50" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";"><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[l]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Given the conservatism, and self-interest, that ran through such organisations, it was unlikely they would ever bow to public opinion alone. Indeed, J. E. K. Studd and his Olympic Committee had reached exactly the same conclusion in 1913.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref51" title=""><sup><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[li]</span></sup></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The Olympic movement may have belatedly accepted professionalism in 1988 but rugby union, which had ruthlessly banned players for life for simply meeting with rugby league clubs, sacked England’s three-time grand slam winning captain, Will Carling, in 1995 for complaining about the ‘57 old farts’ who made up the RFU’s committee. This happened only months before the sport finally abandoned amateurism but – even after twenty years of unfettered professionalism – the RFU remains happy to peddle the sport’s discredited history for ideological gain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Not only is the world cup trophy named after him but the opening ceremony of the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup (disingenuously called the ‘rugby world cup’ as if rugby league does not exist) recreated the William Webb-Ellis creation myth. To compound this historical crime a member of the Royal family, Prince Harry, even played a servant in the dramatisation of this fictional incident.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">In a similar vein, the MCC employs ‘The Spirit of Cricket’ and introduced (without irony) the following Preamble as recently as 2000: ‘Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this Spirit causes injury to the game itself’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref52" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[lii]</span></span></span></a>As sledging, let alone match fixing, demonstrates such an amateurish concept is pointless in a cut-throat professional business. But it’s mere existence – like the England team’s recent decision to come onto the field of play to Sir Edward Elgar’s version of <i>Jerusalem </i>– is evidence that cricket is still influenced by the values and attitudes of a very small group of upper class Victorian gentlemen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Despite the hyper-commercialism and professionalism of the modern game, the monoculture cultivated by the Victorians and Edwardians that fuelled the racist 'Tebbit Test' in the 1990s is alive and well. The game’s administration continues to reflect the self-interests of a socially narrow group from the nineteenth century. Giles Clarke (Rugby School) acted as the ECB’s <u>unpaid</u> chairman </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">between 2007 and 2015 and not only do the ECB continue to make decisions – most notably the removal of Test cricket from free to air television – that </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">undermine the popularity of English cricket, the privately educated dominate the field of play. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Sadly much of the media remain equally complicit and the <i>Test Match Special </i>commentary box has been dominated by public school attitudes and archetypes since its first broadcast in 1957. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Alan Gibson and Pearson Surita were heard ‘conjugating a non-existent Latin verb’ during a broadcast in the 1960s </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">and ‘Aggers’ (Uppingham), ‘Tuffers’ (Highgate) and ‘Blowers’ (Eton) were often heard exploiting the forthright opinions of Geoffrey Boycott (the son of a Yorkshire miner) as a source of humour while extolling the virtues of ‘schools’ cricket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">From relatively straightforward origins the concept of the gentleman and the amateur was altered considerably following the expansion and empowerment of the middle classes in the early nineteenth century. Although an influential social, cultural and political force, the social status of these men, unlike their eighteenth century predecessors, was far from secure. This was especially so in sport, where they faced talented working class athletes and the meritocratic structures and repercussions of modern popular sport. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">The middle-classes first attempt to counteract this 'level playing field' was the increasing use of the title of ‘gentleman’. A title with social status in-built, its use enabled middle and upper-class athletes to distinguish themselves from lower class sportsmen but Chivalric notions of ‘gentlemanly’ behaviour, such as moral authority, bravery, loyalty, courtesy had little to do with sport in practice. Indeed, it was the professionals who continually had to make the self-sacrifices (to wider society or a team) frequently claimed by the 'gentlemen'. The use of the term ‘gentleman’ in sport, as in wider society, was simply about social distinction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">As the prefix of gentleman fell out of use, the concept of amateurism became more important. Although presented as a more ‘civilised’ relationship with sport, the social fears and self-interests of amateur sportsmen and administrators led to the exclusion of lower class athletes, just as eligible to claim amateur status. As their rejection of ‘fair’ or equal competition led to the righteous condemnation of amateurism it, thus, became necessary for sporting elites, and their acolytes in the media, to re-invent the upper-class sportsman in aesthetic terms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Irrespective of the numerous contradictions, amateurs’ were said to play sport gracefully and faced victory or defeat with even-handed stoicism and self-control. This linguistic defence of the amateur may have bolstered the moral and philosophical standing of amateur sportsmen but it also excused consistently poor performances and masked the widespread hypocrisy of amateurism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial";">Like E. W. Hornung's <i>Raffles </i>(1898-1909), the fictional gentleman thief and amateur batsman, who was constantly getting the better of professional policeman and cricketer alike, the real gentleman amateurs of the late-nineteenth and twentieth century have ensured their social and cultural legacy by enacting a work of fiction upon the public. Such was their success; the gentleman amateur remains a significant presence in British sport (and society) today.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref53" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[liii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a>Christine Berberich, <i>The Image of the Gentleman in Twentieth-Century Literature </i>(Aldershot, 2007).<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a>Holt, ‘The Amateur Body’, 352-353.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a>John J. Stewart, ‘The Meaning of Amateurism’, <i>Sociology of Sport Journal</i>, Vol. 2 Issue 1 (1985), pp. 77-86; Lincoln Allison, <i>Amateurism in Sport: an analysis and a defence</i>(London, 2001).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a>Woodgate, W.B. (1888), cited in Derek Birley, <i>Land of Sport and Glory: Sport and British Society, 1887-1910</i>(Manchester, 1995), p. 57.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn5" title="">[v]</a><i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 8 December 1886.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn6" title="">[vi]</a><i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 11 January 1788.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn7" title="">[vii]</a><i>The Standard</i>, 29 December 1827.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn8" title="">[viii]</a>Christopher Brookes, <i>English Cricket</i>(London, 1978), pp. 51-52.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn9" title="">[ix]</a>J. G. A. Pocock, <i>The Machiavellian Moment</i>(Princeton, 1975). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn10" title="">[x]</a>Birley,<i>A Social History,</i>pp. 24 and 39.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn11" title="">[xi]</a><i>New York Times</i>, 16 March 1913.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn12" title="">[xii]</a>As Bamford notes, the social class of the scholars was paramount in defining what a public school was. T. W Bamford, <i>Rise of the Public Schools: a Study of Boys’ Public Boarding Schools in England and Wales from 1837 to the Present Day</i>(London, 1967), p. 38.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn13" title="">[xiii]</a>William Laurence Burn, <i>The Age of Equipoise: a Study of the mid-Victorian Generation</i>(New York, 1964), p. 67;Rubinstein, <i>Capitalism, Culture, and Decline in Britain </i>(London, 1994), p. 104.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn14" title="">[xiv]</a>Peter Parker, <i>The Old Lie: The Great War And The Public-School Ethos </i>(London, 1987), p. 40.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn15" title="">[xv]</a>See the Rugby School website <a href="http://www.rugbyschool.net/welcome/history_traditions.php?o=1" style="color: purple;"><span class="Hyperlink1" style="color: blue;">http://www.rugbyschool.net/welcome/history_traditions.php?o=1</span></a>accessed 29/11/10.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn16" title="">[xvi]</a>The ‘prefect/fagging’ system placed school discipline in the hands of the older scholars. Prefects were thus entitled to treat the younger boys as they saw fit.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn17" title="">[xvii]</a>Clarendon Commission cited in Parker, <i>The Old Lie</i>, pp. 41-42. The nine were: Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Winchester, St Paul's and Merchant Taylors'.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn18" title="">[xviii]</a>Girouard, <i>The Return to Camelot</i>, p. 37.Robert Baden-Powell, <i>Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship</i>(London, 1908).<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn19" title="">[xix]</a>James Pycroft, <i>The Cricket Field: Or, The History and the Science of the Game of Cricket.</i>(Boston, 1859), p. 17.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn20" title="">[xx]</a><i>The Standard</i>, 25 September 1872.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn21" title="">[xxi]</a>Charles Box, <i>The English game of cricket: comprising a digest of its origin, character, history & progress; together with an exposition of its laws & language</i>(London, 1877), p. 442.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn22" title="">[xxii]</a><i>Liverpool Mercury</i>, 18 July 1864.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn23" title="">[xxiii]</a><i>The Era</i>, 27 July 1842; <i>The Manchester Times and Gazette</i>, 25 September 1846.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn24" title="">[xxiv]</a><i>The Era</i>, 26 August 1849.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn25" title="">[xxv]</a><i>Bells London Life and Sporting Chronicle</i>, 25 April 1852.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn26" title="">[xxvi]</a>One athlete, J. E. Warburton, who declared himself ‘Champion Athlete of the World’, charged the public three pence each to view his ‘splendid prizes’ at the Waterloo Hotel in Burnley. <i>Belfast News-Letter</i>, 27 November 1875.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn27" title="">[xxvii]</a><i>The Morning Post</i>, 22 January 1873.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn28" title="">[xxviii]</a><i>Nottinghamshire Guardian</i>, 12 June 1868; <i>The Standard</i>, 14 August 1871.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn29" title="">[xxix]</a><i>The Lancaster Gazette</i>, 11 December 1875.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn30" title="">[xxx]</a><i>The Lancaster Gazette</i>, 11 December 1875.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn31" title="">[xxxi]</a><i>The Penny Illustrated Paper</i>, 1 November 1890.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn32" title="">[xxxii]</a><i><span lang="EN-US">Aldershot News</span></i><span lang="EN-US">, 18 March 1899.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn33" title="">[xxxiii]</a><i><span lang="EN-US">Country Life</span></i><span lang="EN-US">, 17 December 1898.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn34" title="">[xxxiv]</a><i>The Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 12 October 1885.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn35" title="">[xxxv]</a>‘Pride and Profit’, <i>Tinsley’s Magazine</i>cited in the <i>Manchester Times</i>, 30 April 1870.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn36" title="">[xxxvi]</a><i>New York Times</i>, 16 March 1913.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn37" title="">[xxxvii]</a>‘Foreword’, C. B. Fry, in <i>Corinthians and Cricketers</i>, by Edward Grayson (London, 1957), p. 3.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn38" title="">[xxxviii]</a>Mangan, “Athleticism: A Case Study of the Evolution of an Educational Ideology”, in Brian Simon and Ian Bradley (eds)<i>, The Victorian Public School</i>(London, 1975), p. 151.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn39" title="">[xxxix]</a>The Latin phrase ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’ had been associated with education as early as 1693 in <i>Some Thoughts Concerning Education</i>by John Locke. It was further popularised following the development of ‘athleticism’ in the public schools after 1860. Edmund Warre, <i>Athletics, or Physical Exercise and Recreation</i>(London, 1884), p. 3.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn40" title="">[xl]</a>Parker, <i>The Old Lie</i>, p. 85. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn41" title="">[xli]</a>Birley,<i>The</i><i>Willow Wand</i>, p. 5.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn42" title="">[xlii]</a>Stephen G. Miller, <i>Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources</i>(Berkley, 2012), p. xv.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn43" title="">[xliii]</a>Daniel A. Dombrowski, <i>Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals</i>(ReadHowYouWant.com, 2010), p. 4.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn44" title="">[xliv]</a>Jernej Pisk ‘What is Good Sport: Plato’s view’, <i>Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis Gymnica</i>Vol. 36, No. 2, p. 67. Lincoln Allison has discussed notions of ‘intrinsic’ value of ‘sportsmanism’ and ‘athleticism’ in <i>Genetic technology and Sport: Ethical Questions</i>edited by Claudio Tamburrini, Torbjörn Tännsjö, (London, 2005), p. 151.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn45" title="">[xlv]</a>Birley, <i>A Social History</i>, p. 214.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn46" title="">[xlvi]</a>Gerald French, <i>The Corner Stone of English Cricket </i>(London, 1948), p. 134.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn47" title="">[xlvii]</a>The <i>Daily Express</i>had called for the 1950-1951 Ashes tour to Australia to be called off because the MCC team was not strong enough. Norman Baker, “A More Even Playing Field?” in Hayes and Hill (eds), <i>“Millions Like Us”?</i>(Liverpool, 1999), pp. 125–155.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn48" title="">[xlviii]</a><i>Kent County Cricket Year Book, 1949</i>(Canterbury, 1949), pp. 24-25.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn49" title="">[xlix]</a><i>The Cricket Industry</i>, (London, 1956), p. 171.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn50" title="">[l]</a>Ibid., p. 55.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn51" title="">[li]</a><i>Duke of Westminster's Appeal</i>, p. 24.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn52" title="">[lii]</a><a href="http://www.lords.org/mcc/mcc-spirit-of-cricket/what-is-mcc-spirit-of-cricket/" style="color: purple;">http://www.lords.org/mcc/mcc-spirit-of-cricket/what-is-mcc-spirit-of-cricket/</a>Accessed, 19/11/2015.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_edn53" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">[liii]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The British Olympic Association’s (BOA) attempt to ban Dwain Chambers and David Millar from London 2012 for previous drug offences, when they were able to represent Great Britain at other international events, is a direct legacy of the influence of amateurism within British sport, and the BOA’s social and cultural history in particular.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-43217349418939932952016-09-27T09:31:00.001-07:002016-09-27T09:50:16.083-07:00‘Playing within the rules’ – Power, the sporting superstar and the culture of sport<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">British sport is imbued
with a strong ethic of ‘fair play’. The concept of amateurism promoted ‘pure’
sport, played for its own sake, unadulterated by commercial influences. But for
all their amateur bluster British sport was frequently tainted with class
prejudice, racism and jingoistic fervor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">British fair play has
always, therefore, required a contrast and there is an implicit suggestion that
while we Brits play with a ‘straight bat’, foreigners cheat. The outcry over
Maradona’s </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">'Hand of God'</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> or Lance Armstrong’s </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">doping</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> contrasts starkly with the hyperbolic coverage of the
Brownlee brothers recent display of </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">sportsmanship</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> – even though it appeared to break the rules. But what of
Michael Owen’s </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">diving</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, Rugby Union’s </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">'bloodgate' scandal</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> or, most recently Bradley Wiggins use of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">therapeutic use exemptions</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> (TUEs)?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Unlike Armstrong, a case
has been made that Bradley Wiggins use of powerful performance enhancing drugs
under the guise of TUEs is acceptable – fair even – because it was an approved
prescription sanctioned by the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1b1b1b;">Union
Cycliste Internationale</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> (UCI)
itself. As Team Sky supremo David Brailsford </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">claimed; his team had complied with the rules at all times
and stayed </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">"the right
side of the line"</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">.
Indeed they had, and there’s the rub.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">Like Apple, Vodafone,
Amazon or Starbucks who legally avoid billions in </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">corporation tax</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">, Team Sky’s actions are, according to the rules in
place, justified. But their actions, like those of the multinational
corporations, look extremely unethical; especially in light of Team Sky’s
previous claims of </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">cleanliness</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">That Apple and Team Sky
remain within the rules means t</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">he
condemnatory finger has to be pointed towards the people who control the
organizations that make up these ‘laws’. If societies want equitable tax
structures, or sporting contests that are in any way genuine, they must change,
but cultures of doping, corruption, racism, sexism and homophobia persist
because of their actions or, more commonly, inaction. Governing bodies had no
qualms in banning athletes for life in the past for the most </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">trivial offences</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, but there appears to be no genuine will to stamp out
doping or other controversial issues in sport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">Only this week we have
witnessed FIFA’s lamentable decision to abolish its anti-racism taskforce.
Claims that its </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">work was
completed</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> before Russia, </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">a country with a serious problem of racism</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, hosts the 2018 World Cup have raised many a
cynical eyebrow, even if</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;"> no other
country (as with doping) is blameless. But why are such counterintuitive
decisions repeatedly made? And why don’t sports journalists question what they
see, or are told, more often?</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">Cynical or not the
answer is, of course, money. Who pays the piper calls the tune, and the
decisions made by those at the very top of sport are seldom designed to benefit
anyone but themselves or other interested parties. But while political
expediency used to dominate (the provision of a UK passport to </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">Zola Budd</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">, or particular governments or governing bodies decision
to join or ignore </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">Olympic
boycotts</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;"> for instance), the
basis for the majority of decisions today is economic.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">Multi-millionaire
sportsmen and women may benefit from this administrative leniency, but they are
mere pawns in a much larger game where the governing bodies and corporate
sponsors benefit most. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Team Sky’s
financial value to cycling, like US Postal before it, or Manchester United to
the </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">Premier League</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, affords them a certain amount of leverage with
their sport’s governing bodies, for their success directly impacts upon their
own revenue streams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">Individually, Tiger
Woods receiving a two-shot penalty, instead of disqualification, for an </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">illegal drop</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;"> at the halfway stage of the 2013 US Masters is a case in
point. Golf’s biggest global ‘superstar’ at the time, this decision benefitted
the US PGA, the broadcaster and the sponsors far more. For as</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #032eee;">Neal
Pilson, former president of CBS Sports</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, explained: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">"When
Tiger Woods enters a tournament and when he is in contention in the final
round, we see a 30 to 50 per-cent increase over what is the 'normal' rating”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">But even when a
scandal breaks, the corporations such as Nike still win by claiming to have
taken a moral high ground in dropping tainted athletes such as Woods or
Armstrong, although they appear to have made an exception regarding Maria
Sharapova.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">The media are not
invulnerable to riding this financial gravy train of course, and many journalists,
including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Times </i></span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">Matthew Syed</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, have been accused of getting too close to Team Sky or
other sporting bodies. However, there is a fine line to be tread between blatant
sycophancy and hard-nosed investigative journalism. Without access there is
little or no story, and journalists who ask hard questions rarely get
interviews, and football managers, including Sir Alex Ferguson, have </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">banned journalists</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> who do not toe the line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">The result is that most
of the biggest stories, such as the </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">FIFA corruption</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> scandal, or the slavery conditions of those building the
stadiums for the </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">2020 Qatar
World Cup</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">, are now broken by
journalists who do not specialize in sports reporting. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">The media, and indeed <a href="http://idrottsforum.org/forumbloggen/author/malcolm/">academics</a>, have
a crucial role to play in holding those who govern sport to account. Some media
outlets, most obviously Rupert Murdoch’s </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #551a8b;">News Corp</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;">,
which owns a significant stake in BSkyB and recently purchased TalkSPORT radio,
clearly have vested interests in the Premier League but it is incumbent on
others to report objectively and challenge the actions of those in charge much
more than any individual athlete (granted the Armstrong case is exceptional).</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">We may think what we
like of Team Sky and Wiggins behavior but if the rules allow athletes to gain a
competitive advantage they are going to take it. However, the sporting public,
and the athletes themselves, deserve greater clarity.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-70984449028202947582016-06-09T06:24:00.001-07:002016-06-09T06:24:47.741-07:00Euro 2016: Why British football fans ought to support French strikers<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following the terrorist atrocities in Paris on the 13th
November 2015 I quickly resolved to attend the European Championships as
planned (many thanks Matt and Pierre). I realise there is an element of risk in
doing so but, rather than superimposing a tricolour over my Facebook picture, I
thought this was a tangible method of demonstrating both my solidarity with the
French people and my disdain towards the terrorists and their misguided
agendas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the last three months however, the French people have
been facing up to another foe – their own government and the multinationals
behind the <a href="http://action.globaljustice.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1784&ea.campaign.id=41431&ea.tracking.id=62c7d068&gclid=CMSysOWrmM0CFawp0wodFnMPmg">TTIP
Agreement</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/why-france-labour-reforms-proved-so-contentious">Proposed
changes</a> to the maximum working week of 35 hours have grabbed the
headlines, but other changes, that make it easier for larger employers to make
workers redundant for instance, are included. It is for the French to resolve
but, just days before the tournament kicks-off, it is clear that large protests
and threatened strikes by railway workers and airline pilots have the potential
to effect some of those attending the Tournament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I, for one, will accept such a fate should it happen. For
while the reforms may not mean “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/president-hollande-is-taking-on-french-strikers-and-hes-winning-a7067361.html">a
surrender to wicked, Anglo-saxon, ultra-liberal capitalism</a>”, they do
represent the thin end of a wedge very familiar to British families over the
last thirty-five years. A wedge that has led to the ‘illegal’ employment
practices of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/07/the-guardian-view-on-mike-ashley-unacceptable-face-of-modern-capitalism">Mike
Ashley</a>. And the tax-dodging / ‘carpet-bagging’ antics of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/06/mps-accuse-sir-philip-green-of-being-an-unscrupulous-chancer">Philip
Green</a> being rewarded by a government post and a knighthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Such practices have repercussions’, and wealth distribution
in <a href="https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk">the
UK is now the joint sixth most unequal</a> globally (France is
fourteenth). Compounded by a steep decline in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/22/social-mobility-data-charts">social
mobility</a>, these unsustainable trends represent the end game of Thatcherite
policies that required the assistance of a militarised police force to
dismantle Trade Unions termed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/02/still-the-enemy-within-review-striking-miners-1984%20">'the
enemy within'</a>, before making targeted attacks upon other elements of
‘working-class’ culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Wapping dispute and the Miners’ Strike, which led to the <a href="http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/another-yorkshire-police-chief-backs-new-inquiry-on-miners-battle-of-orgreave-1-7936106%20">Battle
of Orgreave</a>, are two examples of the state’s attack on collective
bargaining and working class communities nationwide. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-battle-of-the-beanfield-the-violent-new-age-traveller-clash-with-police-at-stonehenge-remembered-10287028.html">The
Battle of Beanfield</a>, which led to the largest mass arrest of civilians
since the Second World War, attacked New Age Travellers and green politics,
while acid house parties were also targeted. And, of course, there was the
sustained attack upon football, regarded by ‘decent folk’ at the time as <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/18315-hillsborough-football-s-greatest-hurt">“a
slum sport played in slum stadiums, and increasingly watched by slum people who
deter decent folk from turning up”</a>. This attack upon the ‘people’s game’
involved the <a href="https://scfcheritage.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/remember-watching-football-from-inside-a-cage/%20">caging
of supporters</a>, the introduction of now omnipresent <a href="http://www.maxtag.com/history-of-CCTV.html%20">CCTV</a> systems, a
proposed national <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/may/18/seven-deadly-sins-thatcher-tories-football%20">ID
Card Scheme</a> and even electrified fences at Chelsea’s <a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/electric-fencing-at-stamford-bridge-chelsea-circa-1982-news-photo/135075497%20">Stamford
Bridge</a> ground. But this campaign reached its nadir with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-disaster-deadly-mistakes-and-lies-that-lasted-decades">Hillsborough
disaster</a> and the subsequent cover-up by South Yorkshire Police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although calls are being made for another inquiry into
Orgreave, Hillsborough represents a solitary victory for those who were
targeted by the state at that time. But it came too late. Football, as coherently
argued in Hillsborough survivor Adrian Tempany’s book <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/05/and-the-sun-shines-now-hillsborough-review-adrian-tempany-frank-cottrell-boyce"><i>And
the Sun Shines Now</i></a>, was transformed, on the basis of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hillsborough-disaster-inquest-the-sun-kelvin-mackenzie-trevor-kavanagh_uk_571f8103e4b06bf544e0c423%20%20"><i>the
Sun's</i></a> accusations of hooliganism, to appeal to the middle classes.
So successful was this transformation that many of the working-class fans,
whose predecessors’ had sustained football for more than 100 years, can no
longer afford to attend matches or – deep irony alert – pay Rupert Murdoch’s
satellite TV subscriptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In industry those initial, but highly significant, victories
opened the door to ever more changes and amendments designed to undermine <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/10/trade-union-bill-undermine-human-right-protest%20">Trade
Union powers</a> and hard-won <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/27/britains-left-must-join-fight-to-stay-eu%20%20">employment
protections</a> increasingly shored up by the European Union (EU Law had
its own footballing cause célèbre in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosman_ruling%20">Jean-Marc Bosman</a> of
course) but, as the current referendum on the UK’s membership of the European
Union demonstrates, divide and rule politics, aided by a predominantly
right-wing media, is thriving. The creation of the all too obvious, but
effective, schism between ‘private’ and ‘public’ sector workers over pensions
and the like, is simply the next step in alienating the working classes from
each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following the loss of what were higher wages in the private
sector, good public sector pensions are an easy target, but the omnipresent
demands of employers for ever more ‘flexible’ workforces, and the use of zero
hours contracts effect all realms of work in the UK today. In football
parlance; ‘we was robbed’. The UK is, therefore, an apposite example of what
may be ahead for French workers should they surrender too much ground. From the
outside it appears that workers in all sectors are united in this struggle and
I will stand in solidarity with the French on this and terrorism – even if it
means missing a much anticipated football match or two. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-14323028038708077932015-03-09T10:00:00.000-07:002015-03-09T15:22:36.071-07:00A new low for English cricket? Naah, it’s just history repeating itself.<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Deservedly, Bangladesh will be
credited with ‘knocking-out’ a dismal England side from the 2015 Cricket World
Cup. But, as is the way with tournament sport, it was England’s inability to
add to a solitary victory, against Scotland, which has seen England eliminated with
one game still left to play. How, when we consider population size and the
number of professional cricketers at the disposal of England and Wales Cricket
Board (ECB), may we account for this ignominious performance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Well it is not difficult, for we have
been here before. The foundations of this epic failure lie in the continued
self-interest among those who have run much of British sport for the last 150
years – the vast majority of that time under strictly enforced amateurism.
Professionalism – in terms of coordinated organisation, world-class facilities
and serious training – following the ploughing of lottery millions into a
variety of British sports, is something we assume runs through all British
sports today, but some sports are more ‘professional’ than others. As the
humiliating performance in the World Cup suggests, cricket, which remains tied
to the elitist ideologies and an anachronistic structure of the Victorian era,
is not one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a society increasingly riven
with class distinctions, the development of British sport from the 1870s was
inevitably influenced by such prejudices. As Tony Collins’ seminal work </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Rugby’s
Great Split </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">demonstrates, one sport was even divided (in England at
least) upon class-lines (the regionalism involved a lesser, but related,
factor). The hypocrisy among middle-class men who controlled the Rugby Football
Union in denying predominantly northern working class players’ ‘broken-time’
payments for lost wages, while they were allowed ‘out of pocket’ expenses was
shared among those who controlled the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
Professionalism in cricket, almost universally a working class phenomenon,
was too well established however and, in an increasingly popular and
commercialised sport, late-Victorian professionals, such as George Lohmann of
Surrey, became some of the very first working class heroes.</span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was problematic
enough for the elites, but the presence of ever larger numbers of working class
support at grounds, led some of the cricket elites to not only propose the abolition
of the County Championship, or the establishment of an ‘all-amateur’
competition,</span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
others sought a prohibitive rise in entrance fees,</span></span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> in order
to eradicate any working class presence on or off the field. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">These reactionary proposals
notwithstanding, some, including the cricket author H. V. Dorey, argued that
professionals </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">were still necessary as
coaches and ground bowlers (indentured servants) to the counties and affluent
members of elite clubs. It was these ‘subscribers’ – the members of clubs such
as the MCC – men who he regarded as the ‘backbone of cricket, as in everything
else’, for whom the game was run.</span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><sup><span style="line-height: 200%;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span lang="EN-US">Robert Morris has called such associations subscriber
democracies, but there was little democratic about associations which controlled
(all-male) membership via personal recommendations, expensive membership (a
form of financial apartheid) and, in the case of professionalism, increasingly
humiliating distinctions between amateurs and professionals until 1963.</span></span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><sup><span style="line-height: 200%;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[5]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">First-class
cricket has never been a democracy. Unlike the community-centric meritocracy of
the Midland and the Northern leagues, which the MCC and its mouthpiece <i>Wisden</i> reviled, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">so-called ‘</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">first-class’ cricket in England has never been run for
the benefit of the supporters.</span><a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><sup><span style="line-height: 200%;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[6]</span></span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span lang="EN-US">As it was in 1890, the game is run for a tiny minority
of demographically narrow (white, male and over 40) supporters who still pay
their membership to the eighteen ‘professional’ counties. Unfortunately, the
county clubs still hold the balance of power within the ECB, and turkeys’
seldom vote for Christmas!</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In his scorching analysis of
English Cricket, <i>Pommies: England Cricket Through an Australian Lens</i>,
William Buckland reveals the way forward. In short, Buckland compares the
Australian grade system with the bloated English County Championship (ECC) and
comes to a very simple conclusion: There are too many nonviable county clubs
employing too many mediocre professionals. The game, he argues, must be
trimmed, and less, but more competitive and meaningful cricket played. Player
talent would be concentrated, rather than diluted, and the injuries that come
with an overly long County Championship avoided.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">County cricket survives in England because
of the public’s interest in the national side, and yet changes to the game’s
structure that ought to bring about their desire for a consistently competitive
England team are ignored. Unlike football, where the success of individual
clubs in lucrative (and therefore more ‘prestigious’) league or cup
competitions such as the <i>Premier League</i>
and <i>Champions League</i> takes precedent,
the ECC is a cartel kept afloat by Rupert Murdoch’s money. One could examine
the serious damage that the ECB’s acceptance of this money has done in terms of
public access (</span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/aug/24/ashes-cricket-tv-ratings"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a fraction
of the 7.4m viewers who watched the 2005 ashes watch Sky's coverage</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">) in more
detail, but the point here is that cricket is being run by the wrong people,
for the wrong people (themselves). On-field success, as long as the money from
Murdoch (or charlatans like Allen Stanford) keeps rolling in, is almost
incidental. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The future ascension of Colin
Graves to the Chairmanship of the ECB might provide an opportunity for reform. Although
Geoffrey Boycott appeared reticent at the end of the Bangladesh match to
provide ‘on-air’ solutions to the current malaise, he did reveal that he wished
to have a chat with Graves. I’d suggest Graves also talks to Bob Willis and the
other members of the </span><a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/132177.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Cricket
Reform Group</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, whose sound-headed proposals were assiduously ignored by
the ECB in 2003. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The game is at a genuine
crossroads. Successive generations of supporters, and indeed players, have been
let down by the game’s ‘custodians’. Under their watch cricket’s status as the
national game was lost and English cricket’s genuine supporters have had to ‘enjoy’
cyclical success at best, rather than the sustained, planned, success of the
Australians. Furthermore, it has become increasingly out of the financial reach
of the less well-off who would like to support in person or watch on their
televisions. The inspirational effects that followed the ‘free-to-air’ coverage
in 2005 now lost, the youth required to maintain the lower levels of the game
are absent in the numbers required.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Unless root and branch changes are
made, it will not simply be embarrassing international failures that the cricket
authorities will have presided over. There is a real possibility – if the
current trajectory is maintained – that cricket will have become the boutique
pastime that Dorey and his ilk always wanted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
</div>
<div>
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<i>Cricket</i>, 29/12/1892, 508.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<i>Woking News</i>, 23/8/1895.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Cricket</i>, 25/11/1894, 444.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///K:/desktop/A%20new%20low%20for%20English%20cricket.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Thompson and Long, <i>Club Cricketers’
Official Handbook</i>, 1913, <span lang="EN-US">12.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Morris “Clubs, societies and associations”, 412-413.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
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<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->Birley, <i>A Social History of English
Cricket, 214</i>.<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
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DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-21009705963609856452014-12-04T06:44:00.001-08:002014-12-10T13:31:55.633-08:00The Death of Phillip Hughes: Cricket’s ‘Diana’ moment?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember the day Diana, Princess of Wales, died very, very
clearly. The day began with a phone call from a mate I’d been out drinking with
the previous night: “Guess who’s dead?!” he excitedly shrieked. “Errr … Frank
Sinatra?” I mumbled, slowly regaining my senses. “NOOO!” was the reply. “Who’s
the most famous woman in the world?” he prompted. “Ummm … the queen?”. “NOOO!”.
“The queen mother?” I stumbled, really wracking my addled brain. “NOOO!! More famous
than that!!” “Sorry” I said, not being able to process the fact that it could
be a young person who had died, “I’m lost mate”. “DIANA! Princess Diana is
dead!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was more flummoxed than shocked (in my old job as a police
photographer I used to deal with the death of old and young regularly). The
only detail (details at this early stage were scant) that bothered me was how it
had happened? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few days later, once the basic details had emerged, my
mate and the rest of my gang went on holiday for a week or so. I forget – as an
enthusiastic participant in ‘lad’s holidays’ – why I did not go, but not
sunning myself in Spain left me to face the nation's disproportionate and inescapable outpouring of ‘grief’. The lads had returned, all suntanned and white-shirted, in
time for us all to re-convene down the pub for <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2413652/England-v-Moldova-Flashback-1997-World-Cup-qualifier-Wembley.html">England's
World Cup qualifier with Moldova</a>. As Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind' was
played, yet again, I recall loudly uttering something along the lines of “can’t
we just get on with our lives – please?”, only for the mate who had called that
fateful morning to snarl in my face: “You’re out of order! She was the people’s
princess!” Diana had truly become <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TZueBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT77&lpg=PT77&dq=princess+diana+football+international&source=bl&ots=-8rGzkydok&sig=7u4o6tE9E0UivmVrE1yCZ3LvEZk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xBV_VIO7DcjV7QaeqIGIDg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=princess%20diana%20football%20international&f=false">the
outstanding symbol of emotional grandstanding</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, it has to be said, was quite a departure from the
emotional norms of British society (my mate is a sound and highly intelligent man). The normally reserved and carefully measured
response to similar events obviously would not suffice in this case and
countless bouquets of flowers, candles, signatures in books of remembrance and tears
manifested from all sections of society. Blair’s canny aphorism; ‘the people’s
princess’ (<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10454599/Tony-Blairs-peoples-princess-speech-honoured.html">the
spot Blair made the speech even has a plaque recording the event</a>) worked so
well, because it was – for the most part – true. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other societies react to death very differently. We have
witnessed, largely thanks to our viewing the custom on TV coverage of
Spanish or Italian football, British supporters increasingly adopt a minute’s
applause in preference to the customary silence (rudely interrupted or not). In
other countries, and this may well be true for ‘younger’ societies that lack a
long history of stoicism such as the UK, emotion is dealt with differently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Australia, and the cricket community globally, are mourning
the death of the 25 year old international cricketer Phillip Hughes. His tragic
demise from the impact of a cricket ball during a match at the SCG is cause for
great sorrow, but has this tragedy – like Diana’s death – been overdone? Hughes
appears to have been the ideal of Australian masculinity: ruggedly good-looking, a country boy made
good, seemingly indestructible, and a thoroughly decent ‘bloke’. He was
undoubtedly a talented cricketer but, statistically speaking, he was unlikely
to ever become one of the game’s genuine ‘greats’ (I wish of course he was
alive to prove me wrong). This has not stopped a Diana-like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30305207">outpouring of emotion</a> –
seemingly stirred up by some sections of the media (four out of five of
Australia’s free-to-air channels broadcast the funeral live) and, most
disturbingly, by <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/video/adam-goldfinch-video-tribute-to-phillip-hughes/2014-11-28">Cricket
Australia</a> themselves. Only a miniscule minority who are currently grieving
ever met the man, let alone knew him well. While we have witnessed genuine grief
amongst the cricket fraternity who did know him well, we are being confronted by Twitter
campaigns by those who did not. I.e. #putyourbatsout and #63notout (the latter, which encourages the
performance of a good deed, and may at least provide a minor legacy of some sort), and even
the suggestion by Sky correspondent David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd that <a href="https://twitter.com/BumbleCricket/status/537916656173850626">any score of
63 be applauded in Hughes' memory</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As <a href="http://stopwar.org.uk/news/why-i-won-t-wear-a-red-poppy-on-remembrance-day">the
distasteful politicisation of wearing a poppy</a> also ‘inspires’, I do not
wish to feel obliged to publicly acknowledge the death of a soldier or a
sportsman or woman. These are highly personal and what should, for the most part, remain
private thoughts. Hedley Verity, the Yorkshire and England cricketer, who died
of his wounds in the Second World War did not receive such tributes (he does however have a pub named after him), nor the more
recent and, to my mind, more shocking sporting death of Ayrton Senna. And yet they are
remembered and rightfully revered, but that a relatively unestablished cricketer is thought
to warrant extreme ceremonies of public remembrance (potentially in any future innings) reveals
a good deal about modern sport and society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been suggested in the excellent blog by David Rowe,
which exposes the public’s complicity ‘in the damage sportspeople can do to
each other and to themselves’, that <a href="http://idrottsforum.org/forumbloggen/death-of-a-sportsman-gladiatorial-guilt/">cricket’s
primacy within Australian culture</a>, in-part, explains the current
outpourings of emotion. This may be so but, having witnessed a similarly
disproportionate response within the Australian media (but, interestingly, not
the public) to the premature death of the actor Heath Ledger, something else
must be at play. I’m uncertain exactly what that is, but I have my suspicions, although Australia may be a special case, that our societal obsession with ‘celebrities’, and their role in sustaining an increasingly
trivialised media, does play a significant role. Sport is, after all, a highly trivial phenomena. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, celebrity culture is omnipresent, but how we choose
to react to tragic events such as this, or the anniversaries of tragedies of the past, appears to be dictated by the media (and sports clubs or administrative organisations) - this unaccountable accident does not compare, either in scale or in media reaction, to the Hillsborough tragedy. In this case the tragic (criminal even?) death of 'ordinary' football supporters led to their public vilification. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do these ‘celebrities’ represent,
and do they ‘belong’ to us 'ordinary' folk? Hughes may well have represented one future of
Australian cricket, and his death, one hopes, may result in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/nov/27/cricket-naked-aggression-calm-down-phillip-hughes-death">more
measured forms of competitiveness</a> in future, but does the fact someone is
in the public eye provide us with the excuse to gawp at their death behind a
veil of crocodile tears? The internet search engine Bing recently revealed that 2014's top internet
search was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/30273037">Peaches Geldof</a>
who had done little of note prior to dying of a heroin overdose. Then of course
there was the very public life and death of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7928199.stm">Jade Goody</a>, blisteringly
satirised by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZpuSkVkxbM">Charlie
Brooker</a>. Whether genuine or not, unless we knew the departed personally,
there will always be an element of voyeurism involved in our ‘mourning’ of such
celebrities. The media, as it is beginning to recognise in relation to <a href="http://keystone-group.co.uk/?portfolio=mind-media-awards">mental health</a>,
need to reign-in the emotion and report events such as this in more measured
tones. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phillip Hughes deserves to be remembered, but as a son, a brother, and yes (for the rest of us), as a cricketer
who died doing what he loved. Not as the poster boy of mass hysteria
engineered to elevate the moral standing of cricket, nor boost circulation or
viewing figures.</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-55172090729254359072014-10-08T05:49:00.000-07:002014-12-01T14:45:56.850-08:00‘Another “Bombshell” Fails to Explode at the BBC’ <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That it now
looks as if the BBC will be allowing Jeremy Clarkson, his
co-presenters, and <i>Top Gear </i>producer
Andy Wilman, to remain within their employment is hard to accept following their
latest debacle in Argentina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Clarkson, a
professional ‘troll’, who has previously been disciplined for making jokes
about murdered women (who happened to work as prostitutes), Indians and
Mexicans, and for using the ‘N’ word, was found guilty this year of making
racist comments by </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/29/bbc-clarkson-racist-comment-east-asian-minority"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Ofcom</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.
Since then, Clarkson has been reportedly “drinking in the last chance saloon”
having been, yet again, reprimanded by BBC chiefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The lack of
any direct action from the BBC following the number plate controversy, which
referenced the date of the Falklands War is troubling enough, but Clarkson’s
accusation that the Argentinian government ‘orchestrated’ the protests, in
which he claimed</span><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/jeremy-clarkson-top-gear-ambush-was-the-work-of-the-argentine-government-9775672.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">"lives were at stake"</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">, only adds fuel to the fire. It also suggests an
element of desperation on Clarkson’s behalf. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I cannot
speak for the BBC Trust's Board of Governors, but the BBC’s reply to my
complaint, that the programme makers: “would like to assure viewers that this
was an unfortunate coincidence and the cars were neither chosen for their
registration plates, nor were new registration plates substituted for the
originals” does not wash. I, for one, was not born yesterday, and I prescribe
to the Argentinian view </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">that the events were
not</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/05/jeremy-clarkson-argentina-protests-orchestrated-claim"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"an unfortunate
coincidence"</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">If it were
just the number plates it might have been possible to have given the show's
producers/presenters the benefit of the doubt, but one aspect of the
controversy has been overlooked: the specific choice of a Porsche 928
(Clarkson's mode of transport in Argentina, and the vehicle which displayed the
number plate H982 FLK). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In the film <i>Risky Business</i> (1983), a Porsche 928 is accidentally sunk in a river, and
following its retrieval and delivery to a garage, Tom Cruise's character ‘Joel’
and his friends are asked by the garage owner "who's the U-Boat
commander?" See: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bodVVtqmbZE"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bodVVtqmbZE</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Clarkson <i>et al</i> know their popular culture very
well - especially any films that feature 'snazzy' sports cars - and this is
just one coincidence too many for my liking. Although a somewhat obscure
‘in-joke’, if this is not a reference to the British submarine that controversially
sank the ARA General Belgrano, I don't know what is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">How am I so
sure? There can be no doubt that a great deal of highly detailed planning would
have gone into the show (clearly one reason for the show’s success), and such
references fit the programmes ‘laddish’ <i>Modus
Operandi</i>, and Clarkson’s jingoistic (xenophobic even?) world-view
perfectly. I’m pretty certain that Clarkson’s ego would also have relished the
thought of cruising around Argentina in a metaphorical ‘submarine’ – even if it
was built by ‘ze Germans’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Clarkson and
his colleagues must now be beyond redemption, should the BBC choose to act. But
it looks increasingly unlikely that they will, because, akin to the bankers who
brought the country to its knees in 2008, Clarkson is the biggest kid in the
playground, who scares the teachers and thus never suffers the full consequences
of his actions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As in the City
and politics, much of this is related to the Old Boys Network, and it is
vividly represented within the <i>Top Gear</i>
production office, for the show’s producer, Andy Wilman, went to public school
(Repton) with Clarkson. Consequently, Wilman has been eager to protect his old
friend and colleague to the hilt, by previously dismissing racism as</span><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2716921/BBC-hold-internal-investigation-Top-Gear-culture-practices-allegations-racist-gaffes-Jeremy-Clarkson.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“light hearted wordplay”</span></a>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">. The main reason for the BBC’s
lack of action however, is commercial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The <i>Top Gear</i> franchise is one of the BBC’s
biggest money making ventures. But, tellingly, only after the Corporation had to
purchase Clarkson’s share of the rights to the show (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jeremy-clarkson-new-12million-bbc-3603900"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The BBC paid £8.4m for his 30%, Wilman owned 20%</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">) in 2012. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">With shows such as <i>Doctor
Who</i> and <i>Top Gear</i> making</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/top-gear-turns-21-the-things-you-never-knew-about-the-bbc-show-as-it-returns-for-a-21st-series-9101643.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">the BBC's commercial arm more than £300m in 2013</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">, can</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">
the BBC afford to sack the goose that lays the golden eggs – no matter how
problematic? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The commercial
basis of the decision to give Clarkson ever more chances is a wider societal
problem in microcosm. The rhetoric of Clarkson’s friend, and fellow member of
the ‘Chipping Norton Set’, the Prime Minister, that so-called ‘wealth creators’
deserve or warrant tax breaks, or that banks are ‘too big to fail’, is
replicated in the BBC’s ineptitude. Just as no high-ranking banker has faced
any criminal charges for industry-wide fraud, Clarkson gets away with making racist
remarks or carrying out offensive pranks on a public broadcast channel because
he generates money. But, beyond his </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jeremy-clarksons-new-12million-bbc-4029724"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">£12m contract over three years</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">, at what cost to the BBC?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As a public
broadcaster, funded by the license fee, the BBC should put commercial
considerations behind those that ensure that it remains </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">"independent, impartial and honest"</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">, or help in</span><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/publicpurposes/citizenship.html%20%20"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"sustaining citizenship and
civil society"</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.
Repeatedly defending a presenter/producer who has been found guilty of racism
can only damage the reputation of the BBC, at a time when it has faced criticisms
for political bias and financial profligacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The time has
come for those in charge of the BBC to make a decisive stand. Either they sack
Clarkson and Wilman, or they publicly state that everyday racism is an
acceptable aspect of the Corporation’s activities. Option one is, of course,
the only viable course of action, for Clarkson’s ‘last drink’, like the public’s
patience, looks like it has run out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-61836501978435261802012-12-05T09:29:00.000-08:002012-12-06T01:02:32.319-08:00‘Respect’: Does it mean anything anymore?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The news from Holland this week
that a linesman,</span> <a href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/world-football-linesman-dies-attack-youth-footballers-181329171.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Richard
Nieuwenhuizen</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, died on Monday (3/12/2012) after an attack by players
during an U17 match in Almere (east of Amsterdam), the previous day left me
feeling physically sick. How it has traumatised his son, who was playing in the
match, we may only contemplate. This undeniably sad and
worrying event not only calls into question attitudes on and off football
fields, but social values within societies at large. However these ‘children’
may not have reacted in this way had an 'adult' or group of ‘adults’ clearly
demonstrated that such behaviour is unacceptable, and this calls into question how
parents interact with and discipline their children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">'Mindless' violence, be it by the </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/leading-article-the-lessons-to-be-drawn-from-mindless-violence-2333987.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">citizenry
or the authorities</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, is common in many societies throughout the world,
and numerous reasons for this have been postulated: binge drinking, violence on
TV, film and video games, drugs, boredom and alienation to name just a few.
Such issues and their broader societal origins have been discussed in depth
elsewhere, and I would therefore like to address the origins of this tragedy in
a sporting context. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This unbelievably sad event is, in
my humble opinion, the sharp end of what, in the most famous instance, Alex Ferguson
instigated at Manchester United (with </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2055133/Gary-Neville-Now-I-know-shouting-referees-waste-time.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Roy Keane</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> his
principle attack dog). Behaviour, in an ever more lucrative <i>Premier League</i>, that was eagerly
emulated by others such as Arsène Wenger, Kenny Dalglish et al and many of
their players. Pressurising match officials is not unique to football, and it
arguably has a longer history in cricket where the </span><a href="http://mysportsblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/ten-most-hilarious-sledging-incidents-in-world-cricket/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">‘sledge’</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> is almost
elevated to an art-form (W.G. Grace being a very early exponent). More recently
the Australian captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting developed this concept,
and with the mercurial Shane Warne at their disposal the Australians were able
to ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ or appeal off almost every ball until an umpire did not know
what was up or down, ‘in’ or ‘out’. This relentless pressure (remember this
could last for hours at a time over five days) infamously led to the mental
disintegration (and early retirement) of umpire </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/2288331/ICC-to-replace-Steve-Bucknor-for-third-Test.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Steve
Bucknor</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> during a Test Match against India in 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This ‘poor sportsmanship’ towards
officials rather than on-field opponents is the worrying development. West
Indian </span><a href="http://spiffyd.hubpages.com/hub/Colin-Croft-and-Frank-Goodall-incident"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Colin
Croft’s</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> shoulder barge of umpire Fred Goodall in New Zealand in
1981and England captain Mike Gatting’s infamous finger-wagging outburst at umpire </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXhT6P_GHWA"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Shakoor Rana</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> in 1987
apart, cricket, having introduced neutral umpires in 2002, appears to have kept
a reasonably tight lid upon such actions towards officials. But as the much
touted yet ineffectual </span><a href="http://www.thefa.com/my-football/player/respect"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Respect’</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> campaign
suggests, football has a much bigger problem. Sadly (having seen it
works/provides an advantage), many amateur managers and players have emulated the aggressive
and intimidatory actions of those they see on TV; actions that very often fail
to attract the disciplinary or </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/21/steven-gerrard-court-trial"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">legal
consequences</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> they deserve. However, influences closer to home must be
regarded as more influential, and the </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/get_involved/4541798.stm"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">actions of
parents</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> have been under the spotlight for many years. </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p2v1z"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ian Stone</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> reported
on this issue once again, and the actions being taken by the </span><a href="http://www.childrensfootballalliance.com/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">National Children's Football
Alliance</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, for the </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20553556"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">BBC</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> only a day
before Mr.</span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Nieuwenhuizen was attacked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In broadening out this issue once
again, we need to question the underlying values, attitudes, and norms in
behaviour, these ‘young men’ were brought up to believe were acceptable.
Children today are seldom ever wrong, often possess an over blown sense of
entitlement, and they do not appear to be able to accept a failure to get their
own way, or be taught/made aware that sometimes you have to accept defeat or
fail a task. I certainly remember learning the hard way that I had no God given
right to anything – not even a minute on the basketball court having waited over
two hours after school for a team from London to turn up (not good in a sport
where rolling substitutes may be used)! The same went for my parents, although
my father (a referee in what is now the <a href="http://www.isthmian.co.uk/">Ryman League</a>) thought the basketball incident a step too far and I never played basketball
for the school again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That was however, as far as my
father was prepared to intervene (a quiet word with me in the car on the way
home - a stand up row with the games teacher would have been mortifying, but my father knew it was up to me to stand up for my 14 year old self). However, the behaviour of overly protective parents today: running onto
the pitch to berate officials at junior matches, threatening teachers who have
the temerity to discipline or attempt to feed their children </span><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kids-of-mum-who-defied-jamie-150132"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">healthy
food</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> at school etc. needs to be addressed, for these Dutch
children did not react in this way without some 'adult' either showing them the
way, or allowing similarly aggressive behaviour to go unpunished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In an age of austerity and reduced
social mobility, we, and especially the generation at school or university
today, are increasingly less likely to get everything we may ‘want’ out of
life. It is thus important that we develop or re-discover an ability to not
only consider our actions before we act (and the consequences of those actions
if we do not), but to have a healthy appreciation that ‘life is not fair’
sometimes. The British (English) have been lampooned</span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">in many
ways for our stoicism in the past. However, the prescription of a healthy dose
of modern day stoicism would not go amiss. I think we are going to need it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-66007145864443908822012-08-17T03:59:00.000-07:002012-08-20T05:09:02.784-07:00Kevin Pietersen, Racism and Benefit Claimants: more in common than one may think<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those of you who are not aware who Kevin Pietersen (a.k.a.
KP) is, he is a world class, South African born, cricketer who has played for
England since 2005, and he briefly captained the national side between 2008 and 2009.
Recently however he has fallen foul of a hoax Twitter account, which poked fun
at his rather large ego, and his employers and team-mates in the England
dressing room. This ‘falling out’ is predominantly for the alleged sending of derogatory
text messages about some of these team-mates to their current opposition: South
Africa. Consequently, he has been dropped for the final Test of the current
series at Lord’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/19232767">The
Pietersen affair </a> has highlighted a
number of things: The persistent incompetence, or what the ex-West Indian
international Michael Holding called <a href="http://www.wisdenindia.com/the-kp-fiasco-stupidity-and-double-standards">'amateurism'</a>,<b> </b>of the game’s administration; The
negative affects that the publishing boom in half-baked sporting biographies
and social media have in an era of player power; And the implicit racism in
certain sections of the British press. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly, as cricket is not an Olympic sport, the positive
image of multiculturalism displayed during the opening and closing ceremonies,
and within Team GB, does not apply to journalists writing for some of our
newspapers. As I have discussed previously regarding the <a href="http://angrysoutherneroopnorth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/woygate-tip-of-insidious-iceberg_7.html">'Woygate'</a>
affair, some of the British media introduce morally dubious sub-plots into
what, at face value, look like straightforward ‘news’ stories. The Pietersen affair
has brought an all too brief ‘amnesty’ in negative stories, which was replaced
by the equally unpalatable <a href="http://www.mikemarqusee.com/?p=1296">boosterism</a>
of Team GB’s Olympic success, to an end. Such sub-plots have once again taken centre
stage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two articles specific to the affair have questioned whether
Pietersen, as a South African born cricketer, was ever really <i>suitable</i>, in cultural terms, for the
England cricket team? ‘Suitable’ is an interesting implication, for it implies
that cultural or racial differences trump ‘eligibility’ – a far more, if you’ll
excuse the term, ‘black and white’ issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michael Henderson’s <i>MailOnline</i>
article proclaimed: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2188374/Kevin-Pietersen-cares-dropped-Michael-Henderson.html#ixzz23ikxxTuM">'those
of us who have never accepted him as a <i>bona
fide</i> Englishman have been expecting this balloon to go up since the moment
he made his Test debut against Australia in 2005'</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peter Oborne writing in <i>The
Telegraph</i> stated: ‘Pietersen is the
latest white South African to use his selection for the England cricket team to
promote his personal ambitions’. He continued: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/9477566/Englands-South-Africans-are-on-a-sticky-wicket.html#disqus_thread">‘Nationality
is not just a matter of convenience. It is a matter of identity. Kevin
Pietersen may have chosen to come to Britain. But his attitudes and his cast of
mind were formed in South Africa. Ultimately, Pietersen has not much idea of
what it means to be British’</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regardless of what
it ‘means’ to be British, this nation’s sport has a long history of sportsmen
and women from other countries representing us. These range from the Indian
Prince Ranjitsinhji playing cricket for England in the 1890s, the South African
born runner Zola Budd in the 1980s, and numerous contemporary examples.
While all are deemed acceptable when scoring centuries or winning
gold medals, if this stops, or the individual becomes problematic, the journalistic gloves
come off. But this is not an issue unique to sport and race, for our whole
society is subjected to such judgements.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Comments such as
these reveal the nature of certain newspapers and political parties, who define
a person’s worthiness, acceptability, or status by their success. Racial
issues apart, all is well if a member of our society is a ‘winner’, or thought
to be doing noble deeds (such as serving in the Army), but woe betide that
member or sections of our society should they be deemed a ‘loser’. Pietersen
probably doesn’t realise it, but he has much in common with this country’s
benefit claimants right now. <o:p></o:p></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-64757149217340510232012-08-07T09:41:00.002-07:002012-08-08T08:32:49.785-07:00What Olympic Legacy?<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is now over a week since Danny
Boyle’s spectacular opening ceremony washed away a good deal of my Olympic
cynicism. Regardless of my personal animus towards the inherent hypocrisy of
the Olympic message and how the games operate – essentially taking public money
and placing it into private (corporate) hands – Boyle’s tribute to our
industrial heritage, the National Health Service, and a host of our nation’s
idiosyncrasies hit the right mark regarding British identity. However, it has
taken the games themselves to highlight the inequalities of wealth and
opportunity in Britain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Despite the state-educated success
of Bradley Wiggins, it would appear that London 2012 is to repeat the
statistical bias witnessed in Beijing, where more than 50 per cent of gold
medals were won by privately educated athletes. Private education (which only
caters for seven per cent of British children), and the increasing disparities
in the distribution of wealth, as </span><a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/olympic-chief-slams-dominance-of-private-school-medallists"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Channel 4
News</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> have highlighted, has resulted in those representing the UK
being ‘more likely to come from the affluent, less socially disadvantaged areas
of the country’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As the media and politicians fret over what the actual legacy
of the games will be, and where the no doubt reduced funding will be allocated,
school sport is rightly identified as the foundation of any future successes. Numerous
figures from Rupert Murdoch to Lord Coe, Baroness Campbell and Lord Moynihan
have ‘put their oar in’, and Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education,
has been roundly criticised for dismantling ‘the Physical Education and School
Sport programme in English schools, and especially the </span><a href="http://talkingeducationandsport.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/sport-has-still-got-long-way-to-go-mr.html%20"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">School Sport Partnerships</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">’; one of the very few national
policies to successfully break down barriers to participation of state-school
pupils. The on-going </span><a href="https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/education/2012/aug/06/school-playing-field-sale-gove%20"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sale of school playing fields</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> only serves to exacerbate the
issue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Gove’s behaviour is nothing new as the well-known cricket
lover and ex-Prime Minister John Major had overseen the sale of school playing
fields under Margaret Thatcher (</span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/john-majors-battle-on-the-playing-fields-of-britain-1433107.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">over 5,000</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> had been sold by 1994), only to
vainly attempt redemption with ‘the personally launched initiative, entitled </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/jul/25/schools.uk"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Raising the Game</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">’. Raising the Game only served to
highlight the issues surrounding how sport – within or outside of schools –
should be funded, and how much influence government should have over this. The
advent of the lottery and millions of pounds available to sport, and other
cultural activities, may well be moving public money from those who purchase
lottery tickets (generally the </span><a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">poorer in society</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">) to those in elite sports
programmes, who are statistically more likely to have already benefitted from
private education and the facilities and coaching therein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Other sports have long displayed
the class-based traits under discussion, with English Rugby Union and Cricket
similarly dominated by privately educated players. In cricket, the clubs with
the best facilities, with skilled volunteers prepared to fill in the application
forms, are most likely to obtain lottery funding. Indeed the ECB’s ‘Clubmark’ programme is only available to clubs who have their own ground –
immediately ostracising poorer clubs (frequently </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9570959.stm"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">made up of
ethnic minorities</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">), from benefits and any route for the better players
to progress. This brings the issue full circle: Once again, public money,
largely generated from the poor, appears to be re-directed to those less in
need. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If British sport is to truly
represent the egalitarian and multi-cultural Britain portrayed in Boyle’s
opening ceremony in future, fundamental changes to school sport and sport
funding at grass-roots and elite levels are required. Sadly, even if the political will existed, an age of
austerity appears to be the wrong time to attempt such changes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-32416690014574475052012-08-07T09:33:00.003-07:002012-08-18T06:21:56.269-07:00In Defence of British Cycling<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The US Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to charge seven-time
Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong with using performance-enhancing drugs the
day before this year’s Tour de France began was as pertinent as it was sardonic.
Although never having been conclusively caught doping – despite being one of
the most, if not the most, tested athletes in history – there has always been a
cloud over Armstrong’s ultra-successful career, particularly in France. Armstrong
remains innocent until proven guilty, but any exceptional performance in the
sport today leads to questions as to the ‘cleanliness’ of the cyclist in
question: accusations that Bradley Wiggins, current leader of the Tour, is now
only too aware. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The French media, and a number of outspoken journalists
from other countries, particularly the Irishman Paul Kimmage, who’s award
winning book <i>Rough Ride </i>lifted the
lid on the systematic<i> </i>use of performance
enhancing drugs (PEDs) simply to finish elite professional cycle races, openly accused
Armstrong of doping. Unlike Kimmage, who had his own experience of drug use as
a professional to refer to, many who made such accusations, without definitive
evidence, were at least prepared to put their names to such claims. Today, as
many celebrities in other realms of the public arena are aware, such
accusations may be made anonymously via the ‘Twittersphere’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Wiggins responded this week to accusations on Twitter
that it was impossible to win the Tour without taking PEDs with a deliciously
British: "I'd say they are just fucking wankers." But Wiggins was not
finished, and said before storming out of the press conference: "I can't
be dealing with people like that, it justifies their own bone idleness. Rather
than getting off their arses and doing something with their lives it's easier
for them to sit underneath a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of shit..."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">One of Britain’s previous yellow jersey holders, Chris
Boardman, was one of many to jump to Wiggins defence. Speaking on<i> ITV4</i> after the time trial on Monday, in
which Wiggins extended his lead to 1m 53sec over the Australian Cadel Evans, Boardman
said: “The journalist wasn’t going to take any responsibility for that
question, and if he wanted to poke Bradley, Bradley was going to poke him right
back. ... It was an emotional response, and frankly that’s what people want to
see. They want to see real, not what’s laid out and written down by the press
department.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Emotional responses to doping have been Wiggins forte,
and, like Paula Radcliffe’s outspoken stance in athletics, scathing. Wiggins’
disappointment at being ‘withdrawn’ from the Tour in 2007, after a Cofidis
teammate was caught doping, was summed up when asked what the answer was to the
doping issue: "Get more British cyclists". And it is here that the sociological
and cultural differences in the history of cycling between Britain and mainland
Europe manifest themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Although British cyclists such as David Millar, and most
famously Tommy “If it takes ten to kill you, I’ll have nine” Simpson, have been
caught and died through drug use, the hangover of Victorian amateurism remains
with us in Britain today – witness the BOA’s ludicrous attempts to exclude
Dwain Chambers, as if the Olympics was some paragon of athletic and moral
purity. The commercial sponsorship by<i>
L’Auto</i> of the Tour in 1903, meant the event soon became professionalised,
and as James McGurn notes: “The Bicycle Union [of Britain] ... took issue with
the Union Vélocipèdique de France over the French body's willingness to allows
its "amateurs" to compete for prizes of up to 2,000 francs, the
equivalent of about sixteen months' pay for a French manual worker.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The die was thus cast and Britain reverted to track
racing and time trialling, while the rest of Europe partook in incredibly hard</span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stage racing (stages were up to 300 miles
long, on virtually unpaved roads with bikes that had no gears). So hard were
these events, that stopping off for a stiffening brandy or even a hit of
cocaine, “the natural stimulant,” was not unheard of in the early years of the
Tour. The lure of financial and social rewards, along with the extreme nature
of stage racing, meant that professionalised endurance events in Europe went
hand-in-hand with ‘doping’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Cycling in Britain was different. Although time trialling
was hard, as an amateur sport, without any large financial prizes at stake, the
taking of PED’s was never a significant aspect of British cycling culture. A
point largely misunderstood on the continent. Despite some high-profile dopers,
the history of British cycling is full of names who have reached the pinnacle
of cycling without resorting to drugs, or even being a professional. Graeme
Obree, possibly one of this nation’s most unsung sporting heroes, not only broke the hour
record as an amateur on a homemade bike twice, but when he turned professional
he walked out of his new French based team having heard he was expected to ‘chip-in’
for “supplementary medicine” costs. Such principled behaviour, as Mike McNamee,
founding Chair of the British Philosophy of Sport Association, notes: “is a
British phenomenon, we are imbued with Victorian values of playing the game
'fairly'.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Playing fair, or choosing to gain a competitive
advantage, was a largely moral question, and testing remained rare until after the
infamous Olympic 100m final of 1988. The authorities appeal to an athlete’s
better nature remained until Ronald Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of
1988, which formed a part of the wider ‘War on Drugs’. Crucially, the issue of
drugs in sport was no longer a moral question, but a legal one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The rewards for winning the Tour, or a gold medal in London
this summer are such that many are prepared to break these laws in order to
attain them. Since ‘criminalisation’ cycling supporters, who previously
accepted (begrudgingly or not) doping as a part of the sport, now, with the
press leading the way, question the integrity of their sporting heroes. Team
Sky supremo Dave Brailsford has thus invited the anonymous doubters to a
seminar at Manchester at the end of year. It will be interesting to see who
takes him up on the offer. However, until one of our current leading cyclists
is caught, our cycling heritage dictates that the benefit of doubt must
remain with Wiggins. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184955122800982743.post-5808473758269653022012-08-07T09:31:00.000-07:002012-08-08T08:33:17.356-07:00‘Woygate’: the tip of an insidious iceberg.<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
widespread outrage over the front page of <i>The
Sun </i>(2/5/2012), which ‘poked fun’ at the new England manager Roy Hodgson’s mispronunciation
of his Rs emanated from those within and outside of football. Only a day after <i>The Sun’s</i> proprietor Rupert Murdoch was
described by MPs as “not a fit person” to run a major company, the headline was
ample evidence (were further evidence needed) that the Labour endorsed part of
the report into phone hacking is correct. The headline does however, point to
wider themes regarding the Murdoch press’ self-righteous assumptions over its
level of influence in all aspects of British culture and an editorial stance
that can only be described as anti-intellectual and xenophobic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
was not Roy Hodgson, but the straight talking, media friendly Tottenham manager,
Harry Redknapp who was <i>The Sun</i>’s (among
a number of newspapers) first and only choice for the role. Following Hodgson’s appointment <i>The Sun</i> spoke of him being "sensationally
spurned" in favour of Hodgson. But this time round the FA’s admirable
objectivity and due process meant it was not ‘The Sun Wot (sic) Influenced It’.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
BBC’s Mark Lawrenson and other football pundit’s surprise that Redknapp was not
even interviewed notwithstanding, <i>The
Sun’s</i> annoyance was clear for all to see. Who actually manages or coaches
the England team is important to many, but undue influence because of large
circulation figures over the Football Association does not unduly affect, or
harm, people’s lives. Influence over government is another matter, but this point
has received significant coverage elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What
concerns this football fan (and here I have to declare an interest as a West
Bromwich Albion supporter) is the pervasive anti-intellectualism and xenophobia
within almost all aspects of ‘popular’ culture in Britain, which is, if not wholly
driven, then (no doubt unintentionally) perpetuated by various branches of the press.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At
the risk of straying into issues of class, which considering Rupert Murdoch’s
anti-establishmentism may also be a factor in this case, the late Jade Goody
provides a pertinent example. Goody famously thought Cambridge was in London
and racially abused the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, and yet she was scarcely
absent from the pages of the tabloids, even before her tragic, and very public,
death from cervical cancer in 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
should go without saying I am not, in making the following analogy, implying
Harry Redknapp (a man I admire as an expert in his field) is in any way racist.
However, a comparison of Redknapp and Hodgson proves, if not conclusive,
illuminating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Henry
Winter’s statement in the <i>The Daily
Telegraph</i> that Roy Hodgson is a "broadsheet man in a tabloid
world", was as astute as it was obvious to anyone who has followed Hodgson’s
career. Hodgson, who has developed an international reputation having played
and managed in a number of countries, speaks fluent Norwegian, Swedish, German
and Italian, as well as some Danish, French and the notoriously difficult Finnish.
He is also a fan of the authors Sebastian Faulks, John Updike, Philip Roth and
Saul Bellow. Hodgson has even likened his international career to the Russian
expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky, stating: "It [my career] has gone
sideways, backwards, and then upwards again." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Redknapp,
the <i>The Sun’s</i> archetypal English
‘everyman’, writes a regular column for the tabloid, and it must therefore be
regarded as highly ironic that Redknapp while being cross-examined in a recent
court case stated: "I write like a two-year-old and I can't spell". The
case also heard Redknapp (via a recording) also state: "I can't work a
computer, I don't know what an email is, I have never sent a fax and I've never
even sent a text message”. He does however, according to Hodgson, know how to
leave a voicemail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
is of course as abhorrent to mock a person’s poor literary and IT skills as it
is their speech impediments. To maintain the comparison: As broad as Hodgson’s
horizons have been, Redknapp’s, despite a three-year spell as player-assistant
manager of North American Soccer League side Seattle Sounders between 1976 to
1979, have remained comparatively narrow in recent years. The tabloid press’ editorial
suspicion of intellectuals’ and foreigners’, in the guise of ‘comedy’ – witness
not only the ‘Bwing on the Euwos!’ headline but <i>The Sun’s</i> ‘Germans Wurst at Penalties’ and <i>The Daily Mirror’s</i> barrel scraping ‘Achtung! Surrender’ – or in
this case the mocking of a well-travelled, multi-lingual, thoughtful and
cultured man, does not simply appeal to similar suspicions within its
readership, it feeds them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
tabloid mania that the next England manager ‘had’ to be English reflects, in a
world of increasing political extremes based upon issues of race and
immigration, the wider social issues that face the multi-cultural United
Kingdom today. Implicitly, in the regretful absence of representative numbers of
black managers, this meant a white Englishman. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Sun’s </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">obvious
disappointment that Hodgson "wasn't <i><u>the
nation's</u></i> choice”, demonstrates the inherent arrogance within the
Murdoch empire’s assumption that it speaks for us all, and consequently it has
the right to dictate the terms and personnel of our political and cultural
future. As if to confirm that Hodgson represents the wrong kind of Englishman, and
<i>The Sun’s </i>position as one of this
country’s most significant sources of xenophobia, the paper continued: “... we
can't blame him for not being 'Arry". Quite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>DuncanShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05677384878052096983noreply@blogger.com0