LEISURE AND SPORTS

Sport plays such a large part in British life that many idioms in the English language have come from the world of sport, for example to play game means to be fair, and thats not cricket means thats not fair. There are many sports in Britain today, which cater for large numbers of spectators and participators. The most popular participatory sporting activity for both men and women is walking. Billiards, snooker, and darts are the next most popular for men, followed by swimming and football. According to john Oakland, swimming is the next most popular sport for women, followed by keep-fit classes. Fishing is apparently the most popular country sport. Some people argue, however, that the most popular sport in Britain as a whole is football, amateur and professional (soccer). The professional game has developed into a large, family-oriented organisation, but has suffered from hooligans, high ticket prices, and declining attendance. Many people support their local clubs at matches on Saturday afternoons, or watch the matches live on television. The football league in England and Wales has four divisions. Scotland has its own separate system and there are not many professional sides in Northern Ireland. Each division contains twenty teams, and at the end of each season, the top three clubs from the lower divisions are promoted to a higher one. Those who are at the bottom are relegated. There are two main prizes each season. The team that is top of the first division wins the football league championship, whereas the FA cup (FA stands for Football Association) is a knockout competition between all the teams of the league. The final of this competition takes place every May at the famous Wembley stadium in London. Some of the best-known clubs in England are Manchester United, Liverpool and the Arsenal. In Scotland, Rangers, Celtic, or Aberdeen usually win the cup or the championship. Many clubs have problems with money now, because of increasing costs and failing attendance. Some people say that the league is too big and that the players get paid too much. Others say that television is making the crowds stay at home. Many clubs, however, are now earning extra income by using players shirts for advertising as a way of staying alive in the new millennium. Sport at school Sport has for a long time been a very important part of a childs education in Britain, not just to develop physical abilities, but also to provide a certain kind of moral education. Team games in particular encourage such social qualities as enthusiasm, co-operation, loyalty, and unselfishness. Above all, absolute fairness (no cheating!) and being able to lose without anger (being a good loser) are considered important. However, many parents have complained recently that that team games and competitive sports are declining in state schools. Here are some popular team-games and their brief description: Cricket: The scoring of this game is a mystery even to many British people. Each team takes it in turn to bat. The bat is held with both hands, the bottom of the bat resting on the ground. The other team bowls and gets the ball back. Players usually wear white clothes. Cricket is a summer sport in Britain, but the England team also plays in the winter months in Commonwealth countries. It is both an amateur and professional sport. Netball: The game is played with a large leather ball. Each team tries to score goals by throwing the ball through the other teams net. Football is perhaps the most popular game in the world, played in many streets as well as on the field. Rugby: The goalers in this game are arranged in the shape of the letter H. The ball is oval shaped and it looks as if someone has sat on it. There is a lot of pushing in this game. Hockey: Each player has a stick with which to hit the ball. The game is played on a pitch similar to a football pitch. The ball is small and hard. Hockey can be played on grass and on ice.
British Civilisation. Leisure and Sports Conf. dr. Monica Matei-Chesnoiu 1

Many other sports reflect the diversity of interests in British life. Among these are golf, greyhound and horse racing, hunting, riding, fishing, shooting, bowls, darts, snooker, athletics, swimming, sailing, mountaineering, walking, motor-car and motor-cycle racing, and rally driving. The professional sporting industry is very lucrative now, and is closely associated with sponsorship schemes and television coverage. Gambling or betting on sporting and other events has always been a popular pastime in Britain. Weekly football pools (betting on match results) are very popular, and can result in huge financial wins. Moreover, many sports have become an institutionalised feature of British life, and provide a certain view of national identity. For example, Wimbledon means tennis, or the Wembley cup Final means football in England. Sport on television, radio, and the press is a particularly significant component of the activity of the mass media. Since the nineteenth century, newspapers have used coverage of sport such as football, cricket, racing, and rugby both to publicise events and to attract readers. As R. Holt writes, Today sport coverage is central to many newspapers as they attempt to gain and hold readers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.1 For television, sport was among the cheapest form of programming. It could attract large audiences and it delivered substantial audience outside peak-times. According to G. Whannel, For the public service, BBC sport is an integral part its programme output, justifying the institutions claim to be reflecting the cultural life of the United Kingdom. 2 Conversely, Barnett is of the opinion that television has been instrumental in influencing sport for a number of years. 3 However, as Blain, Boyle, and ODonnell hold in a discussion regarding the influence of the European media in Britain, evidence suggests that local cultures are very resilient, and alternative means of delivery, such as satellite and cable, tend to import the same ideological patterns as terrestrial broadcasting. 4 Therefore, media and sport are growing together, they respond to similar needs for popular entertainment, and if we want to understand something about media and sport we need to understand the political economy of broadcasting and the press as a whole. This is part of a huge debate in sociology and media and cultural studies about local and global issues. LEISURE ACTIVITIES Since the Second World War, there has been a great deal of public discussion about the leisure society. People have spent less time working and, consequently, have had more time to themselves and more time for leisure. This statement implies that leisure is defined in terms of work. We could accept this definition of leisure time as that which is left over after work. This definition is problematic because it does not include women at home, the retired, the unemployed, and young people. For these sections of the population, leisure is still defined as comprising that time over which they have control. Therefore, if we have a leisure society, it must have been created at least partly by a reorganization of time. Most obviously, the amount of time that people spend in paid work has been falling steadily. Opportunities for leisure have been created by the greater availability of free time. Sociological analyses5 of the time spent in various leisure activities shows up a number of gender differences which have also changed over time. For men, travel, playing sport, going to the pub and visiting friends are the most popular activities outside the home. These are, with the notable exception of playing sport, also the most time-consuming activities for women. Interestingly, going to pubs used to be
1 2

R. Holt, Sport and the British (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 306-26. G. Whannel, Fields in Vision: Television, Sport, and Cultural Transformation (London: Routledge, 1992), 45-82. 3 S. Barnett, Games and Sets: The Changing Face of Sport and Television (London: British Film Institute, 1990), 879. 4 N. Blain, R. Boyle, and H. ODonnell, Sport and National Identity in the European Media (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1993), 18-36. 5 Nicholas Abercrombie and Alan Warde, with Keith Soothill, John Urry, and Sylvia Walby, Contemporary British Society: A New Introduction to Sociology (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994), 440. British Civilisation. Leisure and Sports Conf. dr. Monica Matei-Chesnoiu 2

a very gender-differentiated activity in 1961; in 1983-84 it was much less so. Table X presents the results of a sociological study regarding the leisure activities outside the home in Britain over a period of twenty years. TABLE X. Leisure outside the home (minutes per average day) Men, full time employed Women, full time employed Activity 1961 1974-75 1983-84 1961 1974-75 1983-84 5 12 24 5 12 21 Travel 10 5 1 9 5 0 Excursions 4 7 10 2 1 2 Playing sport 3 3 2 1 1 1 Watching sport 4 5 9 4 2 4 Walks 3 2 2 4 2 6 Church 6 4 3 2 3 7 Civic duties 4 2 1 6 2 2 Cinema, theatre 2 17 5 3 17 7 Discos, dances, parties, bingo 4 8 5 1 6 2 Social clubs 4 14 13 0 3 10 Pubs 19 21 18 24 27 21 Visiting friends Source: J. Gershuny and S. Jones, The changing work/leisure balance in Britain, 1961-1984, in J. Horne, D. Jary and A. Tomlinson (eds.) Sport, Leisure and Social Relations (London: Routledge, 1987), 38-9. As far as leisure activities within the home are concerned, the most obvious feature is the importance of television watching, which takes up much more time than all other activities put together for both men and women. Hobbies and conversations show some increase between 1961 and 1983-84, while listening to the radio shows a marked decrease.6 The privatization of leisure is connected with the growth of a commercial leisure industry. There is a flourishing industry providing goods and services for peoples leisure. Furthermore, this commercialization of leisure provision does not extend only to activities outside the home. Many home-based forms of leisure are obviously commercialized from video recorders to home improvements. Many contemporary leisure activities have their roots in the cultural and social behaviours of the past, such as boxing, wrestling, cricket, football, and a wide range of athletic sports. Dancing, amateur theatre and musical events were essential parts of rural life for all classes. The traditions of hunting, shooting, and fishing have long been practised in British country life, as well as blood sports, such as dog fighting and bear baiting, which are now illegal. Consumer patterns associated with leisure activities are changing in Britain. The most common leisure pastimes are social or home-based, such as visiting or entertaining friends, trips to the pubs (public house), watching television and videos, reading books and magazines, or listening to the radio and compact discs. Do-it-yourself hobbies, such as house painting, decorating, and gardening are very popular. The practice of eating out has increased and people go to a variety of so-called ethnic restaurants (Particularly Indian and Chinese) and fast-food outlets. Visiting the pub is still a very important part of British life, and more money is spent on drinking and other pub activities than any other single form of leisure. There used to be licensing hours, which apply to opening times for the sale of alcohol. However, these restrictions have been liberalised, and pubs now open from 11 am to 11 p.m. on every day except Sundays, though children under 14 are not allowed in the bar. Holidays and where to spend them have also become an important part of British life. They represent the second major cost after pub drinking. The British are now
6

Ibid., 443. 3

British Civilisation. Leisure and Sports Conf. dr. Monica Matei-Chesnoiu

travelling in Europe and outside it, to a variety of places. In Britain, different forms of holiday exist, from the traditional bed and breakfast at the seaside, to hotels, rented houses, caravan sites, and camping. Increased car ownership has allowed greater possibilities for travel.

British Civilisation. Leisure and Sports Conf. dr. Monica Matei-Chesnoiu