1111 Sport in the Global Society 2 3 Series Editors: J.A. Mangan and Boria Majumdar 4 5 6 7 8 9 Playing on the Periphery 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 1111 Sport in the Global Society 2 Series Editors: J.A. Mangan and Boria Majumdar 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 The interest in sports studies around the world is growing and will continue to do 4 so. This unique series combines aspects of the expanding study of sport in the global 5 society, providing comprehensiveness and comparison under one editorial umbrella. 6 It is particularly timely as studies in the multiple elements of sport proliferate in 7 institutions of higher education. 8 Eric Hobsbawm once called sport one of the most significant practices of the late nineteenth century. Its significance was even more marked in the late twentieth 9 century and will continue to grow in importance into the new millennium as 20111 the world develops into a ‘global village’ sharing the English language, technology 1 and sport. 2 3 Other Titles in the Series 4 Disreputable Pleasures Lost Histories of Indian Cricket 5 Less Virtuous Victorians at Play Battles Off the Pitch 6 Edited by Mike Huggins and J.A. Mangan Boria Majumdar 7 8 Italian Fascism and the Female Body The Cultural Bond Sport, Submissive Women and Sport, Empire, Society 9 Strong Mothers Edited by J.A. Mangan 30111 Gigliola Gori 1 Sport in Australasian Society 2 Rugby’s Great Split Past and Present Class, Culture and the Origins of Edited by J.A. Mangan and John Nauright 3 Rugby League Football 4 Tony Collins The Magic of Indian Cricket 5 Cricket and Society in India 6 Sport and Memory in North America (Revised Edition) Edited by Stephen G. Wieting Mihir Bose 7 8 Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian 9 A Sociological Study of the Development Mining Community 40111 of Rugby Football (Second Edition) The Social Economy of Leisure in Eric Dunning and Kenneth Sheard North-East England, 1820–1914 1 Alan Metcalfe 2 Australian Beach Cultures 3 The History of Sun, Sand and Surf The Commercialisation of Sport 44111 Douglas Booth Edited by Trevor Slack 1111 2 Playing on the Periphery 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 ‘rarely predictable, and in a field in which there has been extensive 4 writing in recent years, it has a freshness about it’. 5 Garry Whannel, Professor of Media Cultures 6 at the University of Luton, UK 7 8 9 Playing on the Periphery is an innovative exploration along the edges of the 20111 modern sports experience. Using diverse and provocative case studies and 1 covering a range of problems, it examines how the cultural content of sports 2 that were once the epitome of Englishness – football, cricket and rugby – 3 is reinterpreted by the distant cultures of a former Empire, and fragmented 4 by the new media and economics of the modern world. 5 From a unique perspective and with a distinctive voice, Tara Brabazon 6 considers sport’s relationship with tourism, colonialism and popular culture. 7 She shows how, through the media’s filter – through photographs and film, 8 stadia, shops and exhibition spaces – sport can acquire multiple and diverse 9 meanings. Though it may appear peripheral, sport is a central force for 30111 memory, emotion and identity . 1 For all those interested in sport, media and popular culture, this is a 2 stimulating new text. 3 4 Dr Tara Brabazon is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at Murdoch 5 University, Perth, Australia and Director of the Popular Culture Collective. 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 1111 2 Playing on the Periphery 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 Sport, Identity and Memory 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 Tara Brabazon 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 401119 1 2 I~ ~~o~!!~n~~~up 3 44111 LONDON AND NEW YORK 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 4 5 First published 2006 by Routledge 6 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 7 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA 8 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 9 © 2006 Tara Brabazon 20111 Typeset in Goudy and Gill Sans by 1 Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon 2 3 The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non 4 Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. 5 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 7 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 8 Brabazon, Tara. 9 Playing on the periphery: sport, identity and memory/Tara Brabazon 30111 p. cm – (Sport in the global society) Includes bibliographical references and index 1 1. Sports – Sociological aspects. 2. Mass media and sports. 2 3. popular culture. I. Title. II. Series 3 GV706.5.B72 2006 306.4′83–dc22 2005023718 4 5 ISBN13: 978–0–415–37561–0 (hbk) 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 1111 2 Contents 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 List of figures vii 4 Acknowledgements viii 5 Series editors’ foreword ix 6 7 8 Introduction: Back to the Boot Room 1 9 20111 1 PART I 2 Sport and tourism 3 4 1 We’re not really here: ‘Homes of Football’ and 5 residents of memory 7 6 7 2 If Shearer plays for England, so can I: The National 8 Football Museum and the popular cultural problem 41 9 30111 PART II 1 2 Sport and history 3 4 3 They think it’s all over, but it isn’t 75 5 4 You’ve just been bounced at the WACA: Pitching 6 a new cricketing culture 102 7 8 9 PART III 40111 Sport and memory 1 2 5 Our Don and their Eddie 125 3 44111 6 Bending memories through Beckham 154 viii Contents 1111 7 On the Blacks’ back 176 2 3 4 Conclusion: Leaving the Boot Room 191 5 6 7 Notes 196 8 Select bibliography 223 9 Index 225 1011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 1111 2 Figures 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 1.1 ‘The Homes of Football’, Ambleside 11 4 1.2 Green and Pleasant Landing 15 5 1.3 Ladies’ Retiring Room 16 6 1.4 Neon Girls 20 7 1.5 Looking Up 21 8 1.6 The Kop 26 9 1.7 Goalkeeper’s View of the Crowd 31 20111 2.1 Red Café 52 1 2.2 Curving the static 53 2 2.3 Urbis from the street 55 3 2.4 The entry 62 4 2.5 Adding colour 63 5 2.6 Exhibition lighting 64 6 2.7 Exhibiting the floor 65 7 2.8 The first half 65 8 2.9 Hearing history 66 9 2.10 Sight and sound 67 30111 2.11 History through touch 68 1 2.12 Tactile artefacts 68 2 2.13 Interaction 69 3 2.14 Extra time 70 4 3.1 The crossbar 78 5 3.2 Displaying 1966 84 6 3.3 The ball 85 7 4.1 WACA entry 103 8 4.2 Urban cricket 107 9 4.3 The WACA shop 119 40111 1 All photographs by Tara Brabazon except 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 2 (Stuart Clarke). 3 44111 1111 2 Acknowledgements 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 Kicking a ball in a park, like writing a book, is often a solitary enterprise. 4 Fortunately, many companions joined me on this journey through sport and 5 space. I extend personal and professional thanks to Stuart Clarke from the 6 ‘Homes of Football’. He not only granted permission to use six of his remark- 7 able photographs, but shared his time in an Ambleside interview. Similarly, 8 I thank Kevin Moore from the National Football Museum and the Inter- 9 national Football Institute for assistance with queries and confirmations. 20111 Writing about the periphery from the periphery poses particular challenges. 1 The diversity of source material deployed in these pages – analogue and 2 digital, archived and ephemeral – was gathered through the support of 3 numerous scholars. Particular thanks are extended to Dr Leanne McRae, Dr 4 Dave Urry, Debbie Hindley, Carley Smith and all members of the Popular 5 Culture Collective. 6 This book would not have been written without the inspiration and efforts 7 of three remarkable people. My mother, Doris Brabazon, remains a life-long 8 inspiration. Her commitment, belief and one-eyed devotion to West Perth 9 Football Club and the West Coast Eagles showed me from an early age that 30111 women can love sport in a way unimagined by sneering men in suits.