FOOTBALL THROUGH THE AGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 129, 3 June 1930, Page 6

FOOTBALL THROUGH THE AGES.

THE PEOPLE'S GAME.

Football is to-day the sport of the people, and it has always been so. It was never the pampered plaything of the idle rich.. Only comparatively lately in fact, as its history goes, has it emerged from the streets and open fields and taken unto itself the dignity of codes of rules and organised clubs. In point of antiquity it can probably claim a far more venerable history than its more aristocratic cousin, cricket. Its origin is shrouded in mystery. The ball, be it noted,

is not merely the instrument of recreation most

widely spread throughout the world to-day; it is also the oldest discoverable in the ancient records of humanity. According to the historians, there is little doubt that football was introduced to Britain by the Romans. Among the Romans it appears a game known as the "harpastum" bore a certain resemblance to our football, while a game played in ancient Greece, with a complicated Greek name, also seems to have had a resemblance to the modern game. "The English game," we arc told, "emerged from its somewhat nebulous and plebeian origins in the fourteenth century, these origins having great affinities to the primitive .lacrosse." Away back about the year 1175 William Fitzgibbons, in his "History of London," speaks of the young men of the city annually going into the field to play at the well-known game of ball, and as far as is known this is the first distinct mention of the game in England It is clearly mentioned in a certain law passed in 1365, during Edward Ill's reign, as a game to be prohibited on account of. the decadence of archery. It was always confined to the middle and lower classes, and had no clubs or code of rules. So rough was the game in the early part of the 17th century that' James I. forbade the heir apparent, evidently a promising young shaver, to play it.*-

Most games, experts assure us, are mimicbattles. This is clearly brought out in the early forms of football. "The ball was placed in the connecting road between two villages, at the spot where it was crossed by the parish boundary. The villagers on either side tried to drive the ball by main strength ;into the centre of the opposing township—to plant the symbol of victory in the enemy's stronghold." It was excitiijg business, too. "Those who were mounted on horseback sometimes got the ball and rode at full speed for the hostile village. The defending horsemen pursued him, smote him on the head with their heavy whip handles, and seized the ball, to be themselves pursued in turn." Altogether a lively affair.

In later times we find that the great football festival of the year was Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the commencement of Lent. On Shrove Tuesday the g#me became so wild that lawabiding folk had to put up their shutters and lock up their houses to prevent damage. A description of the game makes interesting reading: "On Shrove Tuesday it was the custom, after much cock throwing and goose riding, to start the great melee. Usually the town was conveniently split into two sections, but the rules were simple. Tho ball had, by fair means or foul, to be carried to some prominent -landmark in the rear of the enemy's quarters. Whether it was carried, thrown or kicked there mattered little. Both sexes and all ages took part. Th'e whole town might" join ih, and strategic retreats and flank attacks were adopted—swimming rivers, penetrating drains, and even on one occasion breaking through a house wall."

But . . the most solid conservatism of the citizens and the keenest love of such football with unnumbered sides and undefined rules are unavailing against the yet more stolid resistance of an_ unhistorical police force," sadly adds the historian, and so this noble sport died out about a century ago. We do not do these things nowadays. We shove a few picked gladiators into a confined area and let them have a glorious scrim--mage all to themselves. Perhaps, after all, it is better thus. Football has had no muse to sing its praises. Shakespeare mentions it only in contempt. "You base football player!" , says the Earl of Kent to Oswald, steward tp Goneril, the daughter of Lear. Another passing mention in "The Comedy of Errors," and that is the entire extent of Shakespeare on football. But, if no one has written impassioned poetry about football, we have at least one writer, Dr. Gilbert Parker, who waxes poetical in prose concerning what he calls "the symbolism of the ball." The reason' why we get so much pleasure out of ball games, I he contends, is because they give us an opportunity to give vent to the repressed feelings of enmity and revenge against our enemies that is a relic of by-gone savage time? —the ball you smite at, whether it be a football, cricket ball, golf ball, or any other kind, represents nothing less than the head or skull of your enemy. "The primary constituent of tl\e charm of all ball games," he says, "is the .elementary pleasure in the mere striking of a ball cleanly and effectively." !

Perhaps it is a pity that the great old game, as it used to be played, has passed away. Nowadays, of course, it is a stern affair between trained experts. Within the memory of living players the game has changed from a rough-and-tumble affair to the highly-organised sport that it now is. Writing of the game as it was played at the public schools in England in the early 'seventies, one,old veteran says that "the players were not

organised, but moved about the field like a mob In those days the game went forward in a free-

and-easy way, with much laughter and joking among the players, and without that intense ardour which is usual now. It was a game—a recreation, and not," he drily adds, "a battle."