"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Cambridge Movement
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A Cambridge Movement, JC Pollock, London, John Murray, 1953.
If you have read "The Cambridge Seven", this book adds little to our knowledge of the interaction between sport and evangelical Christianity in Cambridge at the end of the 19th century.
The role of J.E K (Kynaston) Studd in bringing DL Moody to Cambridge in 1882 is documented (page 54).
There is a nice quote from Moody on amusements: "When someone asked him [Moody] if a Christian should 'give up racing and shooting and hunting and balls', he replied 'racing means betting and betting means gambling and I don't see how a gambler is going to be Christian. Do the other things as long as you like..and as soon as ever you have won a soul, you won't care about any of the other things'". (Page 72)
The book rehearses the impact of the Cambridge Seven devoting themselves to missionary service. "That seven young men should create such a stir -- and no mere passing sensation - by setting out as missionaries to China can only be explained by reference to their background and past". (Page 73) and "when the most brilliant all-round cricketer of his day [CT Studd] also proposed to bury himself in inland China the world sat up". Page 78
There is a nice tribute to CT Studd by WG Grace, "the most brilliant number of a well-known cricketing family and from 1881 to1884 had few superiors as an all-round player. His batting and bowling were very good..one of the finest of our young players". (Page 74)
Montague Beauchamp's and Stanley Smith's Bible Studies for members of the first Trinity Boat Club and Smith and Studd's resolve to speak to "at least one unconverted soul (who must be an undergraduate) a month but it was not long before he was exceeding his limit" are referred to (Page 75-76).
Pollock charts the development of CT Studd's faith in comparison with his brothers':
"Cricket, however, gradually absorbed all CT's time and although at Cambridge Kynaston combined his cricket and his Christianity to the mutual benefit of both, Charlie Studd (the better cricketer) did not. During the Moody mission in Cambridge he was touring Australia with the MCC and was not until 1883, brought up short by the near-death of his brother George that he saw that lukewarm devotion was not enough..CT now divided his day between cricket and Moody and Sankey's second London campaign. Most of the test team were taken to hear the evangelists, while the Studd brothers with other Cambridge men worked at subsidiary meetings." (Page 79)