SPORTS

All-Rounders

J.W.H.T. Douglas

J.W.H.T. Douglas was an outstanding sportsman. He won an Olympics medal for boxing and captained England at cricket. As a cricketer, he was known as Johnnie-won t-hit-today .

Max Woosnam

Max Woosnam (d.1965) scored a century at Lord's while still a schoolboy, won tennis men's doubles at Wimbledon and the Olympics, captained England at football, made a break of 147 at snooker, and played scratch golf. He also sat on the board of I.C.I., which was one of the leading British companies of the era.

Location: Imperial Chemical House, 9 Millbank, SW1P 3HX (blue, red)

Athletics

Richmond Athletics Ground

In 1961 Richmond Athletic Ground hosted the National Jazz Festival. This had a peripatetic decade before settling outside Reading, where it became the Reading Festival.

Location: Twickenham Road, TW9 2SF

Website: https://the-raa.co.uk

Badminton

When Leigh Hunt was imprisoned in Surrey Prison, after having been convicted of libelling the Prince Regent, he was sometimes visited by Jeremy Bentham. The two men used to play battledore and shuttlecock with one another.

Location: Newington Gardens, Harper Road (formerly Horsemonger Lane), SE1 6PP

Bartitsu

Edward Barton Wright established the Academy of Arms & Physical Culture, which employed martial artists from around the world. Women were able to train there. In the 1890s he devised bartitsu by combing elements that were drawn from jujitsu, boxing, savate (a French form of kick-boxing), schwingen (a Swiss type of wrestling), and stick fighting. Conan Doyle conferred knowledge of it upon Sherlock Holmes as baritsu, which he used to outwrestle Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in the story The Adventure of The Empty House. However, the Academy closed after only three years and bartitsu fell out of favour, leaving the way for jujitsu to become the fashionable martial art.

In 2002 an International Bartitsu Society was established.

Location: 67b Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6EX (red, blue)

Website: https://baritsu.club

Commonwealth Games

In 1938 the British Empire Games were staged at White City. The event featured the first Welsh team.

Location: White City Place, Wood Lane, W12 7TP

Website: https://thecgf.com/games

Croquet

Website: www.croquet.org.uk (The Croquet Association)

Hurlingham One-Ball Open Tournament

Hurlingham August Tournament

Location: Ranelagh Gardens, SW6 3PR

Website: https://southeastcroquetfederation.org/event/hurlingham-one-ball-open-tournament www.hurlinghamclub.org.uk

Jacques

Website: www.jaqueslondon.co.uk/collections/croquet-sets

Bernard Neal

The academic structural engineer Professor Bernard Neal (1922-2016) took up croquet at the age of 40. His outstanding victories in All England Club championship were achieved in 1972 and 1973, when the field included Jack Solomon, who was regarded as the better player. Neal went on to win a total of 38 Wimbledon singles championships.

John Solomon

John Solomon's (1931-2014) family lived close to Putney Heath, where a grass tennis court that was laid as a croquet court. As a five-year-old he devised what became known as the Solomon grip . This involved holding both hands close together, with both knuckles facing forward. At the time, it was the only way he could hold a mallet. It proved to be highly effective.

In 1947 Solomon made his debut at Roehampton, where he won the Turkentine Tray. From the early 1950s to the early 1970s he dominated the sport.

Solomon designed the Solomon mallet. This had a hickory handle, a Lignum vitae head, and scored faces. It was manufactured by Jacques. He established the Solomon Trophy for the winner of an annual match between Britain and the United States.

Fives

Website: https://thefa.uk www.etonfives.com

Westway Fives

In 2001 four Five courts were opened at the Westway Sports Centres. They were the first public ones to have been built since the 1930s.

Location: Westway Sports Centre, 1 Crowthorne Road, W10 6RP (blue, purple)

Website: www.wallballwestway.com

Hurling

In 1775 Irishmen were recorded as playing hurling to the north of the British Museum.

The Gaelic Athletic Association

In 2007 The Gaelic Athletic Association's Provincial Council of Great Britain owned a sports ground in Eltham. In 2018 the site was described as disused.

Location: 134 Avery Hill Road, New Eltham, Sidcup, SE9 2EY

20-22 Wenlock Road, N1 7GU

Website: https://britain.gaa.ie

Ice Skating

See Also: GEORGE ORWELL Ice Skating

John Wilson Skates

John Wilson Skates of Sheffield is over 300-years-old. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert used them.

Website: www.johnwilsonskates.com

Jousting

Hampton Court Palace

Two of the five towers of the Tilt Yard at Hampton Court Palace survive.

Location: Hampton Court Way, East Molesey, KT8 9AU

Website: www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace

Horse Guards Parade

Horse Guards Parade was the tilt yard of Whitehall Palace.

Location: Horse Guards Parade, SW1A 2AX (orange, brown)

Judo

The Budokai

Yves Klein was born the son of two artists. The Frenchman was wary of becoming one himself. He developed an interest in Rosicurianism and judo. In 1949 he spent several months living in London working for a picture frame maker in South Kensington.

Location: Budokai, 4 Gilston Road, SW10 9SL. He trained at the club. (blue, brown)

Website: https://budokwai.co.uk www.yvesklein.com/en/films/view/101/scenes-de-judo/?of=0

Lillywhites

Lillywhites is a large sporting goods store. In the early and mid-19^thC the Lillywhites were a renowned family of cricketers. In 1863 James Lillywhite, a member of the family, opened a shop in Haymarket.

As a player he had sported a top hat. He had worked as a professional cricketer at Rugby School.

Location: 24-36 Lower Regent Street, SW1Y 4QF (red, turquoise)

Website: www.lillywhites.com

Long-Distance Walking

Captain Barclay

In 1809 Captain Robert Barclay waged that he could walk 1000 miles in 1000 hours at one mile per hour. He did so over six weeks. He is reputed to have banked 16,000 guineas from his winnings.

Edward Payson-Weston

Pedestrianism was the sport of endurance, long-distance walking. The last person who was still vertical won. Edward Payson-Weston (1839-1929) was a leading exponent of it. He kept his feet functioning by pouring whisky into his boots. He often played the cornet. In 1886 he participated in a 500-mile-long walked around the principal hall of the Agricultural Hall in Islington. Observers noted that a brown stain was emerging from his mouth. He was asked what it was. It proved to be a result of his chewing coca leaves. In 1882 the temperance movement paid him U.S.$10,000 to endorse it. In 1927 he walked from the corner of 11^th Street and 7^th Avenue into the path of a cab after which he never walked again, dying two years later.

Location: The Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, N1 0QH (orange, grey)

The Mall

In the 1660s there was a fad for the game of pail-mail ; in Italian palla means ball and maglio mallet. The game contained elements of both golf and croquet. The original pail-mail pitch extended over several hundred feet along what became known as The Mall. The site became a fashionable gathering place. Dust disturbed by passing coaches affected the play. To avoid this problem, a new road was lain out in 1661 to the north. This became known as Pall Mall.

Location: The Mall, SW1A 2WH (blue, grey)

Playing Fields

The London Playing Fields Foundation

The London Playing Fields Society was a charity that was granted a royal charter.

Location: 58 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QT

Website: www.lpff.org.uk

Polo

After the Second World War the London County Council compulsorily purchased the Hurlingham House polo ground.

The Hurlingham Association runs polo.

Location: Ranelagh Gardens, SW6 3PR

Website: https://hpa-polo.co.uk www.polointheparklondon.com www.hurlinghamclub.org.uk

Rugby

Website: www.englandrugby.com

William Webb Ellis

William Webb Ellis invented rugby football in 1823 while he was a schoolboy at Rugby School. That his sporting innovation should have been turned into a game, which spread both nationally and internationally, stemmed from the climate that enthused the school after his departure.

Location: St Clement Danes, Strand, WC2R 1DH. Later in life Webb Ellis became the church s Rector. (blue, black)

Internationals

In 1871 England and Scotland played the first-ever rugby union match. The fixture was held in Scotland. Scotland won.

The first England vs. Wales fixture played at Blackheath's Richardson's Fields ground in 1881.

In 1905-6 The Original All Black played in Britain for the first time.

Leagues

In 1987 Rugby Union became a sport with leagues.

Professionalism

In 1995 Rugby Union became a professional sport.

The Rugby Football Union

In 1863 a meeting was held at The Freemasons Tavern in Covent Garden to formulate the rules of football. Among those who were present was Francis Maule Campbell (c.1844-1920), who was there as the representative of Blackheath F.C.. Over a series of meetings, it became apparent to him that what most of those present wanted was the formulation of a sport that was not rugby. At the sixth meeting, he announced his withdrawal. This was the start of the division of the older form of football into rugby and soccer.

In 1871, at the instigation of Richmond F.C., the representatives of 22 rugby clubs met at the Pall Mall Restaurant. They agreed to set up the Rugby Football Union as an umbrella organisation for themselves. Later that year first codified rules of rugby were agreed upon.

Location: Pall Mall Restaurant, 1 Cockspur Street, SW1Y 5DL (orange, red)

Sports Venues

See Also: BICYCLES Velodromes

Suburban Sports Clubs

See Also: SUBURBS

The Bank of England Sports Club

In 2019 the Bank of England put the Roehampton facility up for sale. Two years later it leased the property to the All-England Tennis Club for fifteen years.

Location: Priory Lane, SW15 5JQ

Stick Fighting

The parishes of St Anne and St Giles were given to having an annual stick fight. During the 1722 one a sixteen-year-old boy bludgeoned to death a chimney sweep. The matter went to trial. It was ruled that the youth had not killed the man but rather committed an unfortunate instance of manslaughter.

Switch

Switch is a cross-generational sport that combines elements of basketball, football, handball, netball, and volleyball. During the 2012 London Olympics Danny Hibbert, a youth football coach, enjoyed watching a variety of sports on television. A couple of months later the idea for Switch came to the White City Estate-resident and he wrote down its essential rules in the space of twenty minutes.

Location: Flat 34 Cornwallis House, India Way, W12 7QT

Website: www.switchsports.co.uk

Urban Golf

The architect Jez Feakes (1972-2007) liked golf but did not like its stuffy image. One day he was walking through Covent Garden with his golf clubs. To amuse himself, he started asking passers-by if they had seen his golf ball. This prompted him to consider as to how golf could be played in an urban setting. For the sport he created a new ball, a leather sac that could roll and fly but which would not break things or dent them. In 2004 the first urban golf tournament was held.

Location: Covent Garden, WC2E 8HB (blue, grey)

Unit 20, Canalside Studios, 2-4 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ. The sportsman's home.

David Backhouse 2024