Book review – British sporting history

Thursday

Charlie Brooks

Could a round of golf be the answer to racing’s problems?

From our UK edition

I don’t want you getting the impression that I fritter away my life on a golf course, but when I was asked to join a Knights vs Commoners/Chairmen match at Sunningdale last week, I couldn’t resist, even though I’m injured. No better place to find out what’s going on in the racing world than shooting the breeze during 18 holes at ‘the dale’. The Knights were led by Sir A.P. McCoy, who looks a bit like Bryson DeChambeau when he lines up to hit the ball, but not so much afterwards. His partner was Sir Francis Brooke, the King’s man at Ascot. ‘So you’re not playing, so you’re not?’ A.P. asked. Or something like that. ‘Lateral epicondylitis,’ I replied, shaking my head gravely. I knew he’d pour scorn on me if I let slip this was no more than tennis elbow.

Thursday

Charlie Brooks

Goodwood joins racing’s revolution

From our UK edition

Yay! It’s Glorious Goodwood next week. Which reminds me that the Richmond family were breeding and racing horses when George I was still struggling with his English. They founded Goodwood races in the early 19th century. I, on the other hand, am directly descended from one of the many illegitimate sons of George II, so it’s quite fitting that I became a carefree stable lad immediately after leaving ‘school’, while Charles Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond and Gordon, had to take his responsibilities rather more seriously when he left eight years before me. Charles Richmond is now one of the most intriguing figures in British racing, the rarest of modern creatures, a man with enthusiasm and entrepreneurship coursing through his veins.

Wednesday

Leo McKinstry

How sport helped shape the British character

From our UK edition

Faith in state planning was central to Harold Wilson’s pledge to modernise Britain. It was his rhetorical vision of a country guided by strategic foresight and ‘forged in the white heat of technology’ that helped him win the 1964 election. But Wilson also displayed the same attachment to planning in his personal life. Back in 1934 he joined the Port Sunlight tennis club, not because he was interested in the sport but because he felt it would provide the right environment to approach one of its young female members, a shorthand-typist called Gladys Baldwin. Unlike his ‘white heat’ agenda, the policy worked. After a lengthy courtship, during which Gladys dropped her first name in favour of her second, Mary, they married.