Sport and the British

Youth sport volunteers in England: A paradox between reducing the state and promoting a Big Society

“…A strong ethos of amateurism was reflected explicitly in the names of NGBs founded in this period: for example, the Amateur Boxing Association, Amateur Rowing Association and Amateur Athletics Association. It is also speculated that such clubs enabled the new urban working class to express a sense of identity around place, which had been lost in the rapid move from rural communities to industrialized cities (Holt, 1990); representing a 'bottom-up' form of civic activism. This use of statism as an explanatory variable at a structural level offers greater depth to Raban's (2010) criticism of Blond (2010) that the conditions of 19th Century Britain are idealised: they no longer exist and thus a Big Society is not viable.…”

Contrasting Representations of Englishness During FIFA World Cup Finals

“…[37] However, this is not surprising considering the English have long associated themselves with British Victorian and Edwardian ideas such as the amateur-gentleman ideal, and this national characteristic of the English has never been one which they felt they needed to explain. [38] During the 1966 World Cup clear links to the war were still being made by many journalists. For example, The Sun printed a cartoon depicting an army flying the Union flag on their way to Wembley stadium for the final match between England and West Germanythe caption beneath read: "Auf weidersehen, mein Liebling -we are all being posted to Wembley".…”

Cricket's regional identities: the development of cricket and identity in Yorkshire and Surrey

“…Yet, historically YCCC, thanks to it's administrators, was one of the most conservative of cricket clubs -with big and small 'c's -initially being in the shadow of Nottinghamshire, the early 'northern stronghold', 23 and tended to be a follower of trends, rather than a club that set them. Richard Holt has noted that 'Yorkshire cricket was based upon a particularly fierce sense of territory', 24 which, Lord Hawke and the subsequent 'deportation' 25 of Cecil Parkin apart, forbade a player born outside of Yorkshire officially representing the white rose county until 1992. 26 This selection policy, which initially applied to all counties but only persisted at YCCC, has helped to enhance, since its ECC debut against Surrey in 1863, YCCC's reputation as a bastion of serious, competitive cricket, populated with equally serious, 'regionally motivated' professionals.…”

“…27 Working-class cricket spectators' needs in Yorkshire were met largely by these leagues. Matches were played on half-day closing, Saturdays and even on Sundays, 28 very much in opposition to the ECC timetable 'designed around the mealtimes of the leisured'. 29 As in Association Football and Rugby, it is assumed that these leagues were based on fierce local rivalries, with both the participants' and spectators' status at stake.…”

“…However, Holt has gone further by suggesting that in the north, spectator interest 'centres on the appreciation -more so than the south -of certain qualities of team and individual play'. 69 Phelps' work, 'The Southern Football Hero and the Shaping of Local and Regional Identity in the South of England' questions the validity of Holt's notion that 'the unforgiving duels of batsman and bowler, the strange mixture of guile and grit' 70 were aspects of cricket that appealed solely to audiences in the north. Phelps concluded that northern and southern spectators valued very similar characteristics in a player, and the survey data describing 'desired player characteristics' (Figure 2) clearly supports this.…”