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The Corinthian Ideal

Episode 7 of 30

Clare Balding discovers that the Football Association, founded in 1863, was set up to ensure that players should be gentlemen both on and off the pitch.

Clare Balding examines the era when footballers were expected to be gentlemen,both on and off the pitch. The Football Association founded in 1863 was set up to ensure the boys that had attended the public schools of England could continue to play the game in adulthood by an agreed set of rules.They embodied the Corinthian spirit, the amateur ideal, one must not be seen to take sport too seriously, or to try too hard, superiority must be gained with apparent effortlessness. Clare looks at the life of C.B. Fry, the ultimate Corinthian - a polymath who could turn his hand to writing, politics, academia, cricket and football. In 1902 he was playing football for Corinthians and cricket for Surrey.

Reader, Brian Bowles
Producer: Lucy Lunt.

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15 minutes

Last on

Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:15
大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra

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Playing Like Ladies

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The Formal Empire

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Broadcasts

  • Tue 7 Feb 2012 13:45
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Tue 8 Jul 2014 14:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 9 Jul 2014 00:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 2 Aug 2016 14:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 3 Aug 2016 02:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 19 Jun 2018 14:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra

Podcast

  • Sport and the British

    Clare Balding charts how sport has shaped the British and how Britain has shaped sport