If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
Manly and Muscular Diversions
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Tony Money, Gerald Duckworth, 2001
Under a sub-heading “early football in England and Scotland”, the book refers to a publication by William Fitzstephen, dated 1174 referring to “the famous game of ball” and a proclamation dated 1314 which referred to “great uproar in the city through certain tumults arising from great footballs in the fields of the public”.
There are references to successive bans on football being ignored. In 1414 Henry V outlawed football and ordered the practice of archery instead. Under Henry VII and Henry VIII, numerous statues were passed against unlawful games. James IV in 1491 “In no place in this realm that be used futeball, golfe or other sik unprofitable sports”
The Puritan writer Phillip Stubbe in The anatomy of abuse is in the realm of England 1583 wrote of football “it may rather be called a friendly kind of fight than a play or recreation”.
“But football persisted in the 17th century despite the Puritans and prosecutions for playing or watching football on Sundays” (page 5). At the same time there were some arguments in favour of sport with Richard Mulcaster writing in 1581 that “football strengtheneth and brawneth the whole body”.
In a chapter entitled “The public schools”, the author argues that boys at boarding schools benefiting from their abundant free time played an major part in developing team sports and promoting competitive matches in the early 19th century. And when those boys went to Oxford or Cambridge they continued to develop team sport.