| Abstrakt: |
During the second half of the nineteenth century, religion and cricket came together in the industrial area of West Yorkshire now known as Calderdale. Such an eventuality seemed remote during the first half of that century with clergymen opposed to – even fearful of – popular sports. This article examines why clerical attitudes changed, allowing churches, chapels and Sunday schools to form cricket clubs. It argues, however, that the factors which drove the creation of church cricket and moulded its nature were more a consequence of industrial society and the situation of working men within that society than of clerical influence and even less of Muscular Christianity. It further holds that it was the adaptation of church cricket to this working-class culture, rather than a reaction against a clerical agenda of what Peter Bailey has termed ‘play discipline’, that the marriage sooner or later ended in separation or divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
