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This paper estimates the relationship between sports participation and two broad categories of crime – property crimes and violent crimes- in 323 local authorities in England between 2012 and 2015. The objective is to assess whether participation in sporting activities influences regional crime rates. Furthermore, the impact of socioeconomic conditions on crime rates are estimated. The findings suggest sport participation is associated with reduction in both property and violent crime rates across English local authorities between 2012 and 2015. However, sports participation has a stronger effect on violent crimes compared with property crimes. The results show a 10% increase in sports participation is associated with a fall in violent crimes of 0.97 and 1.56% while a 10% increase in sports participation is associated with a fall in property crimes of approximately 0.65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's sport, and perhaps especially women's football, in England has enjoyed much greater media visibility and support over the past decade. But we still know relatively little about the response of fans of men's football to the rise of the women's game and their views on attending it. This paper highlights responses from 2,347 fans of the men's game in Britain to BBC terrestrial coverage of the FIFA Women's World Cup of 2015. It also investigates general views on women's football, experiences of attending matches and the perceived barriers to match attendance. It argues that there remains residual resistance to the women's game, but also increasing reflexivity about its performance and prospects. Concerns over the financial excesses of the men's game and about the values expressed in its elite versions additionally contribute to more positive attitudes and expectations in our sample about the future of elite women's football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Reverend Kenneth ('K.R.G.') Hunt was an English footballer whose playing career spanned the first two decades of the twentieth century. He is to date the only ordained clergyman to have been capped for England. The main focus here is on his published work, mainly addressed to schoolboys and other young players, comprising six articles written for the 'Boy's Own Paper', two books, and 'Football - How to Succeed', an influential booklet widely distributed by the Football Association (FA) and the English Schools Football Association in the 1930s. Hunt's advice was shaped by his Christian faith, by what he had learned as a player, and by his experiences as a teacher responsible for coaching boys at an English public school. As an eminently respectable figure with impeccable credentials, Hunt played a significant part in the FA's efforts to halt the 'rush to rugby' in public and grammar schools in the interwar years. His usefulness in this respect helps to explain why his ideas on coaching were in favour for so long. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development of the Women's Ashes, focusing on the emergence of Women's Cricket in Australia and England. Despite the importance of the Women's Ashes to the players, it does not have a recognizable public profile. Utilizing data from the England Women's Cricket Association (WCA), published literature on Women's Cricket and media reports on the Women's Ashes, this paper offers a critical sociological discussion of the development of the Women's Ashes and Women's Cricket more generally drawing on wider issues of gender relations in the respective countries that have impacted on the development the women's game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the longer term impacts of Euro 2005 on participation and organization of women's football in a multi-method case study approach, with a focus in one of the hosting areas in the north-west of England. Using primary data from local football development officers and clubs, documentary sources and secondary data analysis, I consider in this paper whether hosting the event has contributed to any long-term legacy in participations and greater gender equity in the sport, regionally and nationally. The evidence suggests that there is still some way to go before such a claim could be made and the plans to develop a ‘Women's Superleague’ have uncertain outcomes and significant resource implications, particularly at the grass roots of the sport. The possible impacts of such major events on building participation and profile for women's sport are also considered, due to the legacy aspirations from the forthcoming Olympics in London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on arguments concerning sport and Americanization, especially in relation to English Premier League football clubs. The central case study here is of Liverpool football club in the north-west of England. The recent economic trajectory of football in England is analysed, as is the current attractiveness of the English game to foreign investors. The specific history and traditions of the Liverpool club and the city of Liverpool is offered as a means of contextualizing the initial response locally to the leveraged buyout by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr early in 2007. The paper considers the almost complete breakdown of relations between the new owners and Liverpool fans between autumn 2007 and spring 2008. It concludes that in attempting to maintain core aspects of the Liverpool club's organic traditions the Liverpool board, paradoxically, paved the way to the excessive commodification of the club and the alienation of many of its own supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a favourable shift in UK urban policy towards the use of sport as a tool for regenerating declining areas. Sporting infrastructure has been constructed in various British cities with a view to addressing the dual aims of sporting need and urban regeneration. However, evidence to support the notion that sport can underpin regeneration goals is highly variable. This paper will explore the growth of sport-related regeneration in the UK and examine the evidence base for this. In particular, it will focus on the economic literature and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of emerging evidence. It will suggest that with investment in sport likely to increase as a consequence of the London 2012 Olympic Games, there is a need to develop a greater understanding of the role of sport in the regeneration process, to maximize the potential benefits and to justify public expenditure on sport in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the way in which perceptions of English football stadiums and the practices that occur in and around them have transformed since the 1980s. Rather than looking at these changing ideas from the perception of the football supporters, the author thinks through these changes from the point of view of the 62% of British adults who do not follow football. She argues that if we are to fully understand the role of sport in society (rather than society in sport) we need to consider those for whom football is central but fandom is optional. To this end she uses the concept of Utopia to analyse the tension between the placeness and placelessness of the stadium for this sector of society. Analysing ideas around hooliganism and the impact of the Hillsborough disaster, this paper argues that the stadium (and by extension football) has been transformed in the public imagination from a dystopic hell to a utopic promise for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates the politics of canoeing on inland rivers in England and Wales in the context of property rights and protest repertoires. We argue that the dominance of property rights has created an asymmetrical position that has underpinned riparian rights holders' claims to exclusive use of rivers while simultaneously delegitimizing the apparently equally valid claims of paddlers and others seeking access along rivers. Utilizing a netnographic approach we interrogate the adopted cultural positions of canoeists as 'roving bandit' and 'social pirate' through a study of online discussion. By adopting identities as 'bandit' and 'pirate', paddlers seek to unsettle the hegemony over property relations exercised by anglers to win concessions for use and enjoyment of rivers. Informed by Mancur Olson's theory of property settlement by outlaws, we argue that these identities do more to substantiate the claims of anglers to possession than further the cause of paddlers to securing greater access. In order to substantiate their claims, paddlers need to shift the point of their attack from that characterized by the roving and ephemeral bandit to that of the settled ruler, in the process establishing a claim over inland waters that is as strong as that already imposed by the anglers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The summer of 2017 heralded an interesting layering of English elite women's sports events as major competitions were held in cricket, football, rugby and hockey. Uniquely this was the first occasion when these competitions were held during the same summer period and England was the only team to participate in all four events. This presents an opportunity to examine British print media coverage of elite English women, across a range of sports tournaments during a confined season. A qualitative analysis of British print media was undertaken for each of the four tournaments. Eighty nine articles from four national newspapers were analysed and results demonstrate emergent themes of International success, Performance and Role Models. These themes are discussed in the context of an accumulation of successful coverage, third wave feminism and the framing of the achievements resulted in the portrayal of the sports women as authentic athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While British football has traditionally been a highly homophobic environment, recent years have seen a shift toward inclusivity for sexual minorities. In this semi-structured interview research, I use inclusive masculinity theory (IMT) to frame attitudes toward homosexuality among 20 male, ostensibly heterosexual, working-class footballers. Consistent with other recent IMT studies on working-class masculinities, I show that these young men espouse overwhelmingly positive and inclusive attitudes toward social and legal rights for sexual minorities – and the hypothetical notion of having an openly gay teammate. I also show how sport is integral to these men's emotionally intimate friendships with one another. Accordingly, this research advances recent findings that young, working-class men are adopting increasingly inclusive dispositions toward the presence of homosexuality in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the efficacy of educational partnerships by sport management and business programs with professional sports clubs. We utilize a case study of the Lock Haven University partnership with Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Premier League in England which was formed in 2019. Both organizations are seeking to expand their footprint, particularly in the North American marketplace. We view the partnership from the lens of value adding for students and for professional sports organizations. Further discussions of leveraging other relationships for student project work, study abroad and internships are also made in our presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dunning and Sheard's seminal work, Barbarians, Gentleman and Players, illustrates the importance of adopting a sociological approach to understanding the development of modern sport. Their specific analysis of the role of football in public schools and peer and pupil–master relations offered an important perspective on changing relations between these social groups. Since then, research on physical education (PE) from a figurational viewpoint has focused more on teachers' perspectives and experiences, with fewer articles concerning pupils' thoughts. In this article, we revisit power relations within male PE by drawing upon data from a recent ethnographic study in the North East of England. We locate contemporary perspectives and experiences of bullying along long-term shifts in people's attitudes towards violence and conflict resolution. In particular, we consider how the social processes involved in bullying illustrate the nuanced relationships and behaviours young people must navigate and negotiate within increasingly complex contemporary societies. In competitive single-sex PE environments, we demonstrate how young males are required to exhibit heightened levels of control over their emotional and behavioural expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many young talented Northern Irish (NI) football players, fulfilling the dream of becoming a professional lies in their ability to migrate to England or Scotland. However, for those who make this move, their migratory journey is often short-lived and the reality for most is involuntary immobility. This article is based on the experiences of a small sample of NI players (no. 8) who migrated 'across the water' to pursue a professional football career, only for their aspirations to be cut short either at the end of their youth training or in the early stages of their career. Semi-structured interviews with these players provides novel insights into their post-migration experiences, specifically around the nature of their release, readjustment to life back at 'home' and the ways in which the lack of career planning and limited educational qualifications and the psycho-social costs of their experiences exposed them to potentially precarious futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its participation in international competitions since the Second World War, the English football team has achieved little success, winning only one World Cup in 1966: an underperformance that is startling when compared with other major European football countries and, indeed, with other sports in England. This article explores the institutional factors in English football which have impeded success at the international level, identifying the distinctively decentralized regulatory culture in English football – and Britain more widely – as a central cause. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores, historically and in some detail, the political deliberations that led to the establishment of one-day cricket in England. It traces this debate from the temporary arrangements for one-day cricket during the Second World War to the inauguration of a one-day competition, with commercial sponsorship, in 1961 and beyond. It examines the various arguments and political factors that were in play and it will suggest that a number of factors contributed to the arrival of one-day cricket, initially in England at this time. These included: changes in the political and economic standing of the British aristocracy; an ongoing financial crisis among the English county cricket clubs; the growth in influence in British political and cultural life of the elites of what the American sociologist Alvin Gouldner called ‘impression management’; the politicisation and greater bargaining power of professional county cricketers; crucial changes in the consumer market for cigarettes; and what may be seen as fresh attitudes to leisure and sport on the part of sections of the English public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financed by the economic powerhouse of the cotton industry, the Lancashire League's member clubs had pre-League contact with the very first English and Australian Test match cricketers. Formed in 1890, the League went on to attract a multitude of Commonwealth stars, many of them ‘Ashes professionals’ whose League experience benefited themselves, their clubs and their communities. For some professionals, the League provided their bread and butter, for others an end-of-career payday, recuperation from injury or part of their cricket education. Some came at the height of their powers. Others appeared as substitute professionals. No other organization has provided its amateurs with the thrill, privilege and memories of sharing the stage with such a rich gallery of international sporting talent. The legendary tales of genius, competitiveness, charisma and showmanship have helped bond 14 clubs from north-east Lancashire together, their membership remaining unchanged since 1897. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games have reinvigorated the debate on Olympic legacies for peace and development. Addressing this debate and building on the articles in this collection, this epilogue argues that the theoretical–conceptual understanding of peace and peacemaking remains poorly developed within the peacemaking discourse espoused by the Olympic movement. The authors draw upon insights from mainstream peace research to identify a series of key themes and questions across six dimensions of peacemaking – aim, means, time, actors, process/action and organization. These themes and questions can guide future research, policy and practice in peacemaking through sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second half of the nineteenth century, religion and cricket came together in the industrial area of West Yorkshire now known as Calderdale. Such an eventuality seemed remote during the first half of that century with clergymen opposed to – even fearful of – popular sports. This article examines why clerical attitudes changed, allowing churches, chapels and Sunday schools to form cricket clubs. It argues, however, that the factors which drove the creation of church cricket and moulded its nature were more a consequence of industrial society and the situation of working men within that society than of clerical influence and even less of Muscular Christianity. It further holds that it was the adaptation of church cricket to this working-class culture, rather than a reaction against a clerical agenda of what Peter Bailey has termed ‘play discipline’, that the marriage sooner or later ended in separation or divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contemporary relationship between Yorkshire cricket and South Asian communities through oral testimonies with white and British Asian cricketers within the region. The article documents how the myths and invented traditions surrounding Yorkshire as an insular county have extended to all levels of Yorkshire cricket culture. Evidence is presented to argue that, despite the growing representation of British Asians within the Yorkshire leagues and within the structure of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, cultural and institutionalized forms of racism continue to be intrinsic to the sport. The article presents evidence to suggest that, regardless of being committed to Yorkshire and their ‘Yorkshireness’, white Yorkshire people may never fully accept British Asians as ‘one of us’. Finally, Yorkshire cricket's (alleged) commitment to ‘colour blindness’ is deconstructed by presenting evidence that British Asians continue to feel marginalized by, and on the fringes of, mainstream cricket culture in Yorkshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is prompted by events at Leicestershire County Cricket Club during the last decade, but principally the period 2010–11. It takes the form of a brief history of the club, culminating in a chronology of recent political upheavals there; this is followed by the drawing out of the political and economic implications of that chronology, with particular reference to the theme of this special issue – the impact upon cricket of the currently thriving Twenty20 format. Declaring an interest, I am a member of Leicestershire CCC, but I have, and intend to imply, no strong opinion about recent goings-on at the club; my sole purpose is to explore what these events might mean for the club and for clubs like it. I begin with some brief history of Leicestershire as a county cricket club. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the Twenty/20 format has often been taken as representing a corruption of cricket. By contrast, this article explores the way in which the limited overs format and especially Twenty/20 may have accentuated professionalism within the game. Limited overs cricket has forced teams to become more systematic and proficient in their fielding, batting and bowling encouraging a more scientific and rigorous approach to training. In order to explore this process of professionalisation, this article examines the development of the reverse sweep from a disparaged novelty to standard and much used part of the batting repertoire. The article compares Mike Gatting's infamous reverse sweep in the 1987 World Cup Final with Kevin Pietersen's successful execution of the shot against Muttiah Muralitharan in a test match at Edgbaston in 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay was written to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909. Australia and England were the two leading international sides and would be joined by South Africa to form a body that would play a role in overseeing the sport's future development. The coming together of national boards into an international organisation came at the instigation of South Africa and this essay considers the economic and political reasons behind their resolve to form such a body and then to consummate it in 1912 with a triangular tournament in England. Australian resistance to such a competition was considered secondary to the political and economic benefits of having South African treated as an equal within the Empire. Finally, the essay considers the merits of South African membership in cricketing terms compared to other notable countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the time of the London Olympic Games in 2012, posters - officially commissioned in one way or another by host cities - will have been used to promote the forthcoming occasion for 100 years. But existing as more than material artefacts with a use value in advertising, these posters can be considered as artistic offerings with an intrinsic aesthetic value. To state this is not unproblematic, as posters can also be embroiled in the political controversies that accompany the holding of the Olympic Games in particular cities at particular points of those cities' histories. And in nearly all cases of Olympic celebration, posters may be seen to serve an ideological/nationalistic function. Yet, opportunity to view and appreciate a comprehensive range of Olympic posters and associated imagery from the time of the first modern Games in 1896 - afforded by a 2008 exhibition held in London - gives idea as to how posters may be used to reignite the prospect of the 'marriage of art and sport' desired by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few sports teams or sports events compare with the British and Irish Lions series for showcasing collectively the talents of elite-level male rugby union players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The 2005 tour to New Zealand, which was billed by the Lions management team and media consultants as the 'Power of Four: One Objective', was widely regarded as 'disastrous' and tension-ridden, not least because of the outcome - 3-0 to New Zealand -, the size and national make up of the playing squad, the inclusion of public relations consultant Alistair Campbell in the tour party and the unintended consequences arising from this, and notable tour events such as the 'staged' photo shoot between Clive Woodward and Gavin Henson and the infamous spear tackle on Lions captain, Brian O'Driscoll. The Lions series provides an interesting paradox in its juxtaposition of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon rivalries with international rivalries whilst, at the same time, it reflects unifying and divisive elements of national identity between, and for, the four Home Nations. Set in this context, we examine press coverage of the 2005 series which included four English tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, two from Wales, Ireland and Scotland, including all Sunday editions. Particular sensitizing concepts derived from figurational sociology were used to identify categories of meaning within the coverage such as Lions building, national tagging and untagging, invented traditions and defence of home players. The findings of this study centre around the use of praise and blame gossip in reinforcing national habitus and invented traditions such as the 'Welsh Way', the related amplifying and de-amplifying role of the press, and a correlative heightening of the English-Celtic nations' rivalry despite attempts by the press and other commentators to temper this whilst invoking a sense of Lions unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cricket literature, and that of English society generally, has attributed almost diametrically opposite regional identities to the counties, players and supporters of Yorkshire and Surrey County Cricket Clubs. This essay aims to reveal the causal factors in the development of these identities, establish the extent to which they are 'real' or 'imagined' and discover if the stereotypes presented have any contemporary relevance. The essay utilizes a survey of 400 supporters to establish the different regional meanings for cricket and to test the perceived identities or stereotypes of the two counties. A comparative analysis of the historical development and control of cricket in each county, literary representations and wider social contexts are then used to establish the various reasons for differences in the regional meaning of cricket. The essay concludes that regional differences in the development and control of the game, its image and presentation have been critical to the development of these cricket identities and cricket's meaning or function for contemporary supporters - particularly in Yorkshire. It goes on to suggest that certain myths have been advocated by social scientists and that a more 'orally historical' approach may help in the explanation of identities previously thought to represent either 'commonality' or indeed 'difference'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second half of the twentieth century, a new significant grouping emerged in the pattern of migration from Ireland. During this period the numbers of Irish students attending universities and colleges of higher education in Britain rose steadily. Many of these students returned to Ireland as soon as their course of study ended, and so they could be said to comprise a 'temporary diaspora'. [1] Corresponding with their growth in numbers, these Irish students have increasingly played Gaelic games at their respective universities in Britain. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and its sports have thus become the primary vehicles for the expression of Irishness among Irish students in the British higher education environment, and have become one of the links binding a new generation of Irish émigrés to their native land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bodyline bowling controversy during the MCC tour of Australia in 1932–33 provides a clear example of how cricket strayed outside the realm of sport and into the arena of politics and international relations. Bodyline was seen as dangerous and unsportsmanlike, and the threat of the tour being cancelled meant the issue was taken up by politicians and the public. The significance of the bodyline tour and the controversy it created can only be seen by putting it in context with the imperial importance of cricket, the fragility of Anglo-Australian relations and the wide spread economic depression of the early 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of children in sport in relation to opposing ideologies of social control and personal freedom. Outline of how child protection initiatives in England have developed; Role of women in English sports policy and practice; Paradox of child protection.