Education Sport
hooligans. Rugby is a hooligans’ game played by gentlemen.” Try repeating that after the fi nal of the Boodles Cup, which was contested by Eton and Charterhouse, two of the most distinguished schools, not just in this country, but in the world. A splendidly spirited game, in which
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Charterhouse won 2-0, the fi rst of their goals being scored by Harry Lineker, son of Gary, the former England striker and now BBC presenter, was watched in March by what seemed like every pupil and staff member at both schools, with a total of 31 coaches, making the trip to the Milton Keynes Dons’ Stadium. Other famous schools taking part in this annual tournament for independent schools, which this season attracted 54 entries, include Westminster, Winchester, Bradfi eld, Repton, Manchester GS and also Shrewsbury and Lancing, both of whom have won the competition. Hooligans? It is indeed curious how such canards have fl ourished, since football has always been the winter game of choice for several
ome long-established sayings are not only hackneyed, they are also wrong. Here is one: “Football is a gentleman’s game played by
A Class
The beautiful game is fl ourishing in independent schools, says John Goodbody
of the top public schools. Matches between Westminster and Charterhouse began in 1863, making it the oldest annual fi xture anywhere in the world, while the old boys of Eton and Charterhouse took part in the 1881 FA Cup Final (the Old Carthusians won 3-0). T e structure of the FA Cup was based by Old Harrovian CW Alcock on the house matches at Harrow.
However, it is in recent years, that the sport has really begun to boom in independent schools, with many former pupils becoming professional players. T ere are currently 30 players, who have been privately educated, on the books of Premiership or Football League clubs, led by Chelsea and England international mid- fi elder, Frank Lampard, who represented Brentwood in the Boodles Cup, and James
42 FirstEleven Summer 2011
“I was not aware of any other former independent schoolboys playing, when I was. I think the increase is partly because there is a celebrity culture about football”
Beattie, the Blackpool and former England striker, who was at QEGS Blackburn. A new generation is also coming through. T is season, Michael Doughty, a pupil at Harrow studying for his A Levels, recently made his debut for Queen’s Park Rangers in an FA Cup tie at Blackburn Rovers while Johnny Gorman represented Repton in the Boodles Cup having already been capped by the full Northern Ireland team. However, there was a period in the middle part of the 20th century when few
former independent schoolboys played professionally. David Roy, the honorary secretary of the Arthur Dunn Cup, which since 1903 has provided an annual competition for many old boys’ teams, said: “When I was at Westminster in the late 1950s, professionalism was almost a dirty word. But this is no longer the case.” John Baugh, from Aldenham and now the headmaster of the Dragon School in Oxford, one of Britain’s premier boarding prep schools, played in goal for Exeter City
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CHARTERHOUSE, STOWE, RWT PHOTOGRAHPY, BRENTWOOD SCHOOL
PHOTOS: XOXOXOXOXO
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