Playing the game
From Dr Christopher Tyerman Sir: Would it be possible to point out to Charles Sprawson (Books, 16/23 Decem- ber) that, pace his assertion of my ignoring Old Harrovian Wimbledon champions, I fully acknowledge the first winner (p.391): `Spencer Gore . . . the governors' land agent (first winner of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship in 1877 . . . declared bankrupt in 1907). . . '? This may have been too `Tacitean' for your reviewer, but Gore — like C.W. Alcock, Charles Wordsworth and many other strenuous OHs — is there in more than name; as is the fact that Harrow pioneered compulsory games from the 1820s. For a historian, the understanding of the evident power of pub- lic-school games and sport lies, then as now, in comprehending the context, not merely the heroic minutiae.
Christopher Tyerman
Hertford College, Oxford
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