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Why the pain, what’s the gain? The quest for extreme fitness

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clubs like Bishop Durham or Dulwich FC, the argumentation could have had a more thematic structure that would have discussed in individual chapters, for instance, the different organisations of amateur… Click to show full abstract

clubs like Bishop Durham or Dulwich FC, the argumentation could have had a more thematic structure that would have discussed in individual chapters, for instance, the different organisations of amateur clubs and the different choices these clubs made. Similarly, the differences between the evident financial pragmatism of numerous clubs and the kind of elite amateurism as a principle of gentleman amateurs that transcended economic issues could have been discussed in its own chapter rather than being divided into numerous sub-chapters and occasional paragraphs throughout the book. While the topic is familiar to many scholars in the UK, for others continuous reference to schools, teams and leagues throughout England could have been presented through more illustrations and tables. For example, a list could have been given of clubs affiliated with a few county associations. Another list could have presented the winners of the FA Amateur Cup. There is also a lot of repetition. While the structure and the lack of tables are the main weakness, fluid and cogent argumentation are the book’s main strengths. The book is really for those already familiar with the history of professional football in the UK because to fully understand the history of amateur football one should know something about the professional game. Morris shows that much more work needs to be done on amateur football, indicating which areas future research could concentrate on, most notably municipal venues. Now with a history of official amateur football in place, sport historians can focus on amateur football played mid-week and on weekends by local teams especially since the 1920s by those ‘tens of thousands of real amateurs, in pub teams, works’ teams, Sunday teams and many other varieties’ (340).

Keywords: football; quest extreme; amateur football; history; gain quest; pain gain

Journal Title: Sport in History
Year Published: 2018

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