“half-sporting, half-intellectual pleasure” [CROO]
Of the prevailing number of topics we find in the Sherlock Holmes canon — from tobacco to food, the role of women to social hierarchy, weapons to money — we don't often find ourselves considering the world of sport.
We do get a glimpse of sports every now and again; in the opening chapters of A Study in Scarlet, Watson remarks on Holmes's physical abilities: he was noted to be "an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman." Notably, none of these is a team sport. All require the talents of a single participant, matched against one opponent.
As far as team sports go, the Canon provides us very few glimpses, and they are quintessentially British. One —rugby — even lends one of its positions to the title of a story. "The Missing Three-Quarter" concerns the mysterious and sudden disappearance of one of Cambridge's varsity right-wingers. As we sprint through the rest of the stories, we find that Gilchrist played for the rugby team in "The Three Students," and that Watson played for Blackheath when Robert Ferguson played for Richmond in "The Sussex Vampire."
For team sports originating in India, we have polo and cricket. Baron von Bork ("His Last Bow") is said to be a polo player who belongs to the Hurlingham Club. And a young Percy Phelps ("The Naval Treaty") was the victim of cricket bats over the shin and young Lord Saltire's cricket cap turned up ("The Priory School").
But nowhere do we find a mention of association football (that's "soccer" for our American readers), despite England being the birthplace of the first official rules of the game in 1863. Indeed, there is a history of the game that goes back to the twelfth century in England, but it wasn't until the nineteenth century that it rose in popularity.
By 1871, there was a divide in the sport, with those in favor of "hacking" (that's carrying the ball) splintering off to form the Rugby Football Union. Then there was a further split of professional and amateur teams, leading to official recognition of professionalism by the Football Association in 1885.
For a fun look at putting together a team, you might want to listen to Episode 270 of Trifles: "The Missing Three-Quarter One-Third Discovered" (Listen wherever you get podcasts). And check out the the full Games & Sports collections on Patreon and Substack.
Let's see what the field looks like at Baker Street Elementary these days...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at the Baker Street Elementary website.
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