It’s surprising to learn that John Astley Cooper first proposed what has become the Commonwealth Games in 1891: 5 years before the Modern Olympics. The plan was to hold a sports competition every four years “as a means of increasing goodwill and understanding of the British Empire”. Committees were set up throughout the Empire to […]
England at the FIFA World Cup over the years – it’s certainly been a journey! From crushing defeat to glorious victory…to who knows what the 2026 tournament will bring. We’ve still got the fun and great hope of not knowing at this point. The first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930. FIFA chose […]
Was Jim Thorpe the greatest athlete in the world? King Gustav V of Sweden certainly thought so. He described Thorpe thus as he handed him two gold medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Jim Thorpe was a legendary Native American sportsman, who lived from 1888 – 1953. He was a Sac and Fox Native American, […]
The first cricket book, which covered a tour was Fred Lillywhite's account of an England tour of Canada and the USA in 1859 and the genre continues to this day. Recommended are the early volumes by Lillywhite and Fitzgerald and the outstanding tour accounts in the 1950s ' cricket books by Jack Fingleton and Alan Ross. More modern cricket books on the Ashes by Mike Brearley and Gideon Haigh are also well worth reading along with a host of other titles.
