Sport and the English, 1918-1939 by Mike Huggins Jack Williams

Author:Mike Huggins, Jack Williams [Mike Huggins, Jack Williams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology of Religion, Sports & Recreation, History
ISBN: 9780415331852
Google: o2AD1AQeL3EC
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2006-01-15T04:40:08+00:00

The pleasures of playing sport

The great majority of those who played sport must have done so because they enjoyed it. Except for those forced to play at school, participating in sport was voluntary, a means of having fun. Apologists for sport, and organisations such as the National Playing Fields Association, often stressed that many who enjoyed playing were denied opportunities to do so by the shortage of facilities. Playing brought a range of satisfactions not unique to the inter-war period – release from the everyday routine, the joy of exercising the body, the edge of competition with the pleasure of victory but the dejection of playing badly or losing, the sociability of playing with and against others, receiving admiration and possibly consolation for lack of status and achievement in other areas of life. For some there was also pleasure in the human body itself. This could be the sensual pleasure of exercise and physical contact, of being gazed upon or watching the bodies of others. Such pleasures could be noted in organisations as diverse as the popular Women’s League of Health and Beauty or the male body-building cult. Sportsmen and women had long displayed their bodies in fairgrounds, pubs, circuses and music halls, and one of the attractions for both participants and spectators of sports like boxing or wrestling was the opportunities offered for such display.

For the very talented there was the attraction of applause, prestige, perhaps fame and glory and for a tiny number being paid to play and the prospect of higher living standards. To former leading rugby union player Howard Marshall, rugby meant

the heave and strain of the scrimmage; the smell of sweat and embrocation in the dressing room; the joy of achievement, the thunder of battle; the train journeys, the surging of Welsh crowds; Princes Street on Calcutta Cup day; great players and great games … loyalties and friendships and memories.

(Marshall 1936:115)

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