‘See These Brilliant Exponents of the Game’: The England Women’s Hockey Team Tour of Australia and New Zealand, 1914

Abstract

This paper argues that the 1914 England Women’s hockey tour of Australia and New Zealand has an ambiguous place within wider progress narratives of women’s sport. It created some important sporting precedents, being the first time Australian and New Zealand women’s teams had taken the field. The media reception of the tour was mixed. While the social pages and some of match commentary focused on the appearance of the players, the majority presented the tour as a worthy sporting spectacle. Indeed in the final match the New Zealand team was billed as the ‘All Blacks’, the name normally associated with national men’s teams. Moreover, the symbolic importance of the tour was enhanced by the fact that the tourists were accorded the same rites and rituals accorded men’s touring teams to New Zealand: parliamentary and civic receptions; playing in the leading sporting venues and being linked to imperial bonding.     

New Worlds and Old Prejudices: Australia,Cricket and the Subcontinent: 1880–1960

Until recently, Australia's cricketing past has been coloured by an anglocentric bias. Australian cricket writers, players and administrators mainly have deemed Australian series with subcontinental countries of much lesser importance than Ashes contests. In surveying Australia's cricketing relations with the subcontinent from the 1880s until Australia's first fully fledged official tour of the region in 1959–1960, this paper seeks to redress this imbalance. The paper explores how initial cricketing relations were viewed within the prism of Australia's traditional cricketing ties with England. This did not alter with India's attaining official Test match status in the 1930s. Australian tours of India were confined to unofficial teams, and it was not until 1947–1948 that the first official exchange occurred. As this paper documents, the importance of subcontinental cricket tours increased after the war, as both Labor and Liberal Coalition governments encouraged the use of cricket to foster diplomatic ties at a time of increasing decolonisation and when Indian and Australian external relations were ideologically opposed. The governments' efforts were not fully supported by many Australian cricketers and administrators. While some, such as the Australian captain Ian Johnson, embraced cricketing diplomacy, many of his colleagues coloured these new cricketing worlds with old Australian prejudices.     

Before the ‘Black Ferns’: Tracing the Beginnings of Women’s Rugby in New Zealand

Abstract

Women’s rugby union in New Zealand has increased in popularity over the past decade, preceded by two decades of dominance at the international level and much activism to have the women’s game recognized and supported, nationally and provincially. However, as this paper reveals, women’s engagement with the game, as players, began more than 100 years before the Black Ferns won their first international tournament. Through an examination of several fleeting ‘episodes’ of women’s attempts to play in earnest, as represented in digitized newspapers from Papers Past, it becomes apparent that women’s foray into the hyper-masculinized team sport of rugby challenged dominant sensibilities but was not wholly resisted. The ‘events’ investigated here suggest that gender roles may have been more porous than traditionally invoked by the categories of ‘Victorian’ and ‘New Woman’, contested, albeit intermittently, by the actions of Pākehā and Māori women around the colony.     

An Ironic Imbalance: Coaching Opportunities and Gender in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) is a sport designed specifically for women. With roots in ballet, calisthenics and eugenics, it was meant to showcase femininity, beauty, and encourage healthy bodies for motherhood, therefore offering socially acceptable sporting opportunities for females. This paper considers whether such sporting opportunities extended to female coaches. We examine the recruitment patterns in relation to gender of some of the top coaches in Australia and New Zealand since the 1980s, who are predominantly migrants. Using archival sources, interviews and personal experience, this paper argues that while so-called feminine or artistic sports can offer greater opportunities for female coaches, WAG in Australia and New Zealand remains dominated by male coaches, who have held the majority of the head coach positions and in many cases, been actively recruited from overseas. The few females who have been employed in top positions have been appointments of ‘convenience’ rather than reflective of a shift away from these gendered employment patterns. Thus, while its creation as a specifically feminine sport may lead WAG to be viewed as a site of increased opportunities for women coaches, deeper exploration reveals an unresolved tension between the use of male and female coaches.     

Stories of Haka and Women’s Rugby in Aotearoa New Zealand: Weaving Identities and Ideologies Together

Abstract

Sociology and history are intimately related to each other and cannot be clearly separated or isolated from each other which resonates with a Māori view of time (the past, present, and future are not distinct entities) and realms (the spiritual and human in particular). This paper uses pūrākau and storytelling to explore how haka performed by strong women in tribal narratives, in Māori contexts, and in women’s rugby creates a more nuanced understanding of the embodied discourses associated with intersecting identities (gender, race, ethnicity, class) in and around the sport of rugby union. As a Māori woman, heavily invested in the sport of rugby union, how did the words and actions of Māori women from my past influence my present and my future and how was this embodied and experienced through haka? In particular, my 10 years as a member of the New Zealand women’s rugby team and my understanding of the histories or pūrākau (tribal stories) of strong women in te ao Māori (the Māori world) inform this paper. This will help to illustrate how history and sociology are intimately connected and highlights how intersecting stories told through time, from different perspectives can influence key learnings in sport.     

‘Not Merely an Isolated Game’: Women’s Association Football in Australia

ABSTRACT

Australia has participated in the world-wide growth of women’s football particularly since the 1970s, but long before that the game was played recreationally and competitively by women in Australia. Women have struggled to overcome active opposition to their taking part in the sport and neglect of their achievements which are considerable. This article provides an outline of the history of the game both nationally and in its international context. It also tries to capture the experience of some of the pioneers of the women’s game and its modern practitioners, revealing some of the ways in which overt and covert discrimination still hinders recognition of their achievements.     

‘Definitely not Cricket’ the Times and the Football World Cup 1930–1970

In July 1967, 15 million people were glued to their TV sets to watch one of the most audacious BBC outside broadcasts – the climbing of the Old Man of Hoy. A 450-foot crumbling sea stack situated in the Orkneys was conquered by six climbers in a broadcast that has been dubbed the first ‘reality television’ programme. It connected an armchair audience with the elite of a sport subculture intent on conquering one of Britain's most spectacular geological treasures. This paper, which draws on original archive material, autobiographical accounts and press reports, examines the climb and situates the broadcast historically within the evolution of televised climbing in Britain, and considers the continuing and evolving relationship between climbers and the media.     

Authenticating Mäori Physicality: Translations of ‘Games’ and ‘Pastimes’ by Early Travellers and Missionaries to New Zealand

This paper theorizes how knowledge of indigenous tribal epistemologies was made ‘knowable’ through Enlightenment rationalism in an early colonial context. Specifically, the paper determines how and what knowledge of Mäori tribal physical activities was interpreted and authenticated through early travellers' tales and missionaries’ accounts in New Zealand. The central thesis argues that what was established as authentic and truthful aligned with Enlightenment rationalism, while those Mäori physical practices incomprehensible to Western understandings were deemed inauthentic and, consequently, were obscured and/or discarded. Throughout, the article theorizes the translation of knowledge into meaningful Western discourses and how these translations came to be crystallized in the colonial imagination.     

Sport and the New Culture of the ‘Second Golden Age’: Amsterdam’s Sporting Entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amsterdam underwent important changes in its economic, social, and cultural life as the city entered what is often referred to as its ‘Second Golden Age’. Old elites gave way to new and a new more entrepreneurial culture emerged focused on mass, visible, and consumable activities, including sport, in which the body played a central role. This was especially apparent from the late 1870s and 1880s when spatial changes within the city helped to ensure that sport was increasingly the location for new kinds of associational activity and the development of new products, all underpinned by the potential for profit. Entrepreneurs such as Perry & Co., De Gruyter, and the Amsterdamsche Sport-Club were able to effect strategic combinations between the new body culture and consumerism, producing a range of new products and exploiting new technologies to create new markets. In seizing these opportunities, Amsterdam's entrepreneurs were also reproducing the concept of the trainable, measurable, and consumable body.     

‘Thus far and no farther’: the rise of women’s hockey leagues in England from 1910 to 1939

ABSTRACT

The Lancashire and Cheshire Ladies Hockey League (LHL) was formed in 1910, ‘by way of dissenting from the policy of the All England Women’s Hockey Association [AEWHA]’, which disapproved of playing for championships or trophies.²2. Anon., ‘Ladies Hockey Gala’, Manchester Guardian, 3 April 1911, 3. Similar league competitions – set up and largely run by men – quickly followed in cities and towns across the North and Midlands, providing women with regular Saturday afternoon fixtures, as well as knockout cup games. After failing to find satisfactory accommodation within the AEWHA, several leagues broke away to form an alternative governing body, the English Ladies Hockey Leagues Association (ELHLA), which remained in existence until 1960. As well as organising inter-league games and cup competitions, the ELHLA selected England representative teams. With a focus on class and gender, this article – for the first time – will examine the AEWHA’s evolving attitude towards leagues from 1910 to the start of the Second World War, and the types of teams that populated these early competitions. It will also explore the conditions that gave rise to the ELHLA and the impact this organisation had on the authority of the AEWHA before 1939.     

‘Tours of Imperialism’: Cricket and Cultural Transfer in South Africa, 1880–1910

Abstract

Few can deny the significance of sport in today’s South Africa. The sporting structures upon which this is based were first introduced to the country by the British in the late nineteenth century. In line with policies of cultural imperialism, sports such as cricket were promoted at this time as part of a wider political agenda that encouraged the adoption of an ‘English’ way of life in the region. Sports tours, most notably cricket, were a fundamental part of this cultural transfer between the ‘Mother Country’ and her colonies in Southern Africa. To underpin the study of transnational linkages and transfer in African sports, this paper will offer an historical overview of how ‘British-styled’ sport arrived in South Africa and how the early cricket tours between England and South Africa were constructed to promote distinct political and cultural connections. This paper will explore the early development of cricket in South Africa and investigate its symbiotic link to British imperialism and colonialism via the first tours and sporting exchanges that took place. The origins of the game in South Africa will be examined as well as its development up to 1910 (the date of Union in South Africa) as the site of a constructed transnational 'brotherhood' between Britain and its most coveted African colonies.     

‘Discipline Your Ladies … So They Become Independent’: A Discourse on the Beginnings of Women’s Skiing in the Black Forest,Germany

Abstract

The Black Forest is considered to be the cradle of skiing in Germany. In 2016, the 125th anniversary of the beginning of skiing in the Black Forest is being celebrated. Over the decades, skiing developed into a very popular sport for men and women in Germany and spread to the Alps. Presently, the German Ski Federation (Deutscher Skiverband, DSV) has over 500,000 members, about 40% being women. This paper will concentrate on the first decades of women’s skiing in the Black Forest until the First World War. To present a wider picture, in some sections, it will be necessary to relate to other parts of Germany. A special focus will be put on competitive skiing, skiing as a social event and the discourse about women’s ski clothes.     

Experiencing Nationalism in International Sport: The Shanghai Liangjiang Women’s Basketball Tour of Japan,Korea, and Southeast Asia, 1931–1935

Abstract

International sport provides an environment where individuals experience their nations in various ways that could shape their identities, knowledges, and behaviours; however, this has been long neglected in the studies of the history of Chinese women’s sports. Remarkably successful in competitions in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, the Shanghai Liangjiang Women’s Basketball Team is an ideal case that could answer the following question: how did international sport shape Chinese sportswomen’s sense of nationalism in the early 1930s? Through examining team members’ self-identification, gendered choices in international games, constructions of the Japanese, Koreans, and Southeast Asians, this article explores the complicated relationship between national identity building, women’s daily experiences and international sport. It argues Chinese women’s participation in international sports in the early 1930s reinforced their national identifications and nationalistic sentiments. Female players’ shared national pride and humiliation overshadowed their entire foreign experiences.     

‘A Different Kind of Test Match’: Cricket,English Society and the First World War

This paper uses cricket as an analytical tool for investigating developments in English society at the time of the First World War. It firstly explores contemporary attitudes to how cricket responded to the outbreak of war, making comparison with the experiences of other sports. It is shown that the fact cricketers enlisted in their thousands, allied to conspicuous attempts by the cricket authorities to support the war effort, largely deflected the kind of criticism that was heaped upon other sports. This paper then considers the role played by cricket in shaping the wartime experiences of both civilians in England and members of the armed forces serving in areas of conflict. It is demonstrated that contemporaries believed that cricket provided respite from the war and boosted morale. This study lastly considers the insights that cricket reveals about the impact of the war upon society, demonstrating that the evidence offered up by the game suggests that rather than breaking down social divisions of Edwardian-era England, the war in fact reinforced societal stratification as the anxieties imposed by the conflict led people to seek comfort from established structures.