The Other Boat Race
In the 19th century, servants at Oxford and Cambridge held a biennial boat race that was easily the equal of the students’.
Sport
How Poland Found Itself in the Mountains
In the decades before the First World War, Polish mountaineering became a form of nationalism for a lowland people.
Flannelled Fools
A history of sport in England hits a six.
Hungary’s Golden Squad
Many of the ideas that shape football today were developed in the 1920s by a generation of Hungarian coaches.
The President's New Stadiums
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party has consolidated its power with relentless construction projects, pursued at the expense of Turkey’s cosmopolitan heritage. The country’s historic football stadiums are among the collateral.
Ranji's Special Guest
Roger Hudson explains why the great cricketer W.G. Grace embraced Indian headwear for a day.
British Sports History
Robert Colls rises to the challenge of arguing the case for sports history as a serious academic subject, digging deep into its beginnings in the 1960s and winning with a wealth of scholarly works and skilled rhetoric.
The 1954 World Cup: Triumph of a New Germany
When West Germany won the competition for the first time in 1954 they were the unfancied representatives of a divided nation emerging from defeat and humiliation.
Isaac Perrins, 1751-1801: Prize Fighter and Engineer
W.H. Chaloner describes the eventful and varied life of a sometime steam engine manufacturer, champion boxer, and, in later life, firefighter.
Pleasures of the Park
A fashionable parade and a scene of sporting contests, St James’s Park was first enclosed by Henry VIII. Marjorie Sykes describes the history of the park, including how James I kept a menagerie and aviary there, to which Charles II added pelicans.