The inextricable link between sport and the press in the Victorian era: the example of the ‘Sentinel Cup’

ABSTRACT

During the Victorian era sport underwent what has been described by academics as a ‘revolution’. What began the nineteenth century as largely informal, recreational pastimes with few written rules and a small commercial fringe was transformed into a codified, commercialised, mass-spectator entertainment industry. During this period an inextricable link developed between sport and the press and both became mutually beneficial; sport provided a continuous conveyor belt of content for journalists to report whilst newspapers provided enhanced publicity and exposure in return. However, the press were not merely commentators and observers of sport and several publications took a more central role in its development and organisation. This is exemplified by the Staffordshire Sentinel, a regional newspaper that circulated across North Staffordshire and South Cheshire, which established the self-titled ‘Sentinel Cup’ in 1892. The competition was officially created to develop junior association football in the region, although key stakeholders also had other alternative motives, and it has been contested for 125 consecutive years, making it the longest continuous football cup in Britain. This paper uses the ‘Sentinel Cup’ as an exemplar of how the press became increasingly involved in sport during the Victorian era and explores the competition’s inauguration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Martyn Dean Cooke http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1814-6924

Notes

1. John Gardiner, The Victorians: An Age in Retrospect (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2002); Michael Paterson, A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain: A Social History of Queen Victoria’s Reign (London: Constable & Robinson, 2008).

2. Tony Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society (London: Routledge, 2013), 49; Mike Huggins, The Victorians and Sport (London: Hambledon and London, 2004), 6; Neil Tranter, Sport, Economy and Society in Britain: 1750–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 13.

3. Huggins, The Victorians and Sport, 6.

4. Tranter, Sport, Economy and Society, 1.

5. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society; Huggins, The Victorians and Sport.

6. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society, 53.

7. Steve Tate, ‘“Tityrus” of the Athletic News (1860–1936): A Biographical Study’, Sport in History 25, no. 1 (2005): 98–115; James Curran and Jean Seaton, Power Without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain (London: Routledge, 1991), 43.

8. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society; Andrew J. H. Jackson, ‘Civic Identity, Municipal Governance and Provincial Newspapers: The Lincoln of Bernard Gilbert, Poet, Critic and “Booster”, 1914’, Urban History 41, no. 1 (2015): 113–29. Paterson, Life in Victorian Britain.

9. Mark Hampton, ‘Newspapers in Victorian Britain’, History Compass 2, no. 1 (2004): 1–8; Tom O’Malley, ‘Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory and the late Victorian and early Twentieth Century Press’, Victorian Periodicals Review 48, no. 4 (2015): 591–606; Paterson, Life in Victorian Britain.

10. Jackson, ‘The Lincoln of Bernard Gilbert’; Paterson, Life in Victorian Britain.

11. Hampton, ‘Newspapers in Victorian Britain’, 21.

12. Hampton, ‘Newspapers in Victorian Britain’, 21; Joel H. Wiener, Newspapers for the millions: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain, 1850s to 1914 (London: Greenwood Press, 1988).

13. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society.

14. Tate, ‘“Tityrus” of the Athletic News’; David Toms, ‘The Cork Sportsman: A Provincial Sporting Newspaper, 1908–1911’, Sport in Society 19, no. 1 (2016): 24–37.

15. Tony Mason, ‘Sporting News, 1860–1914’, in The Press in English Society from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, eds. Michael Harris and Alan Lee (London: Associated University Presses, 1986), 168–86, 79.

16. Mason ‘Sporting News’, 179.

17. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society; Tate, ‘“Tityrus” of the Athletic News’.

18. Tate, ‘“Tityrus” of the Athletic News’.

19. Mason, ‘Sporting News’; David Toms, ‘The Cork Sportsman’.

20. Henry R. Fox-Bourne, English Newspapers (London: Chatto and Windus, 1885).

21. J.W. Horsley, ‘Our Sporting Zadkiels’, The New Review, November, 1893, 521.

22. Mason, ‘Sporting News’.

23. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society.

24. Mason, ‘Sporting News’.

25. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society.

26. Allen Guttman and Lee Thompson, Japanese Sports: A History (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1998).

27. Christopher Thompson, The Tour de France: A Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).

28. J.G. Jenkins, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 8 (London: Victoria County History, 1963).

29. ‘The Potteries – Introduction’, The Art Union, April 1874.

30. R.A. Lewis, Staffordshire Population since 1860 (Stafford: Staffordshire County Council Education Department, 1975).

31. E.J.D. Warrilow, A Sociological History of the City of Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley: J. J. Brookes Printers, 1960), 261.

32. G. Petgrave Johnson, ‘Smoke Pollution of the Atmosphere in the Potteries’, Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute 42, no. 6 (1922): 321–5.

33. A descriptive account of The Potteries (Illustrated): Advertising and Trade Journal (1893).

34. ‘The Staffordshire Sentinel’, Staffordshire Sentinel, January 5, 1889, 5.

35. ‘Certificate of Circulation’, Crewe Guardian, December 11, 1875, 4; ‘The ‘Observer’s’ Circulation’, Cheshire Observer, April 4, 1891, 4.

36. John Tupholme and David Leake, The Sentinel Story: 1873–1973 (Hanley: James Heap Publishing, 1973), 25.

37. Tupholme and Leake, The Sentinel Story.

38. Tupholme and Leake, The Sentinel Story, 38.

39. ‘Athletic Notes’, Athletic News, February 12, 1876, 2.

40. Examples of various sports include: ‘Burslem Cycling Club’, Staffordshire Sentinel, August 31, 1889, 3; ‘Water Polo Notes’, Staffordshire Sentinel, October 12, 1889, 3; ‘Longton Swimming Club’, Staffordshire Sentinel, December 3, 1889, 3; ‘Bowls’, Staffordshire Sentinel, July 1, 1881, 3.

41. Martyn Cooke and Gary James, ‘Myths, Truths and Pioneers: The Early Development of Association Football in The Potteries’, Soccer and Society (January 2017). doi:10.1080/14660970.2016.1276247.

42. Robert Speake, One Hundred Years of County Football – The Staffordshire Association, 1877–1977 (Stafford: Staffordshire Football Association, 1977).

43. Matthew Taylor, The Leaguers (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005).

44. Cooke and James, ‘Association Football in The Potteries’.

45. ‘Notice to Junior Football Clubs – Sentinel Challenge Cup’, Staffordshire Sentinel, September 17, 1892, 3.

46. Tupholme and Leake, The Sentinel Story.

47. Census Returns, William Heath, 1861 (RG9/1937/40/29/542890).

48. Census Returns, William Heath, 1891 (RG12/2173/103/7).

49. ‘Career of Mr. W. Heath’, Staffordshire Sentinel, January 13, 1912, 6.

50. Ibid.

51. Tupholme and Leake, The Sentinel Story.

52. Census Returns, Richard W. Ship, 1901 (RG13/2604/131/4).

53. ‘Draw for the “Sentinel” Cup’, Staffordshire Sentinel, October 29, 1892, 3.

54. Ibid.

55. ‘North Staffordshire Notes’, Athletic News, November 25, 1889, 7.

56. ‘Draw for the “Sentinel” Cup’, Staffordshire Sentinel, October 29, 1892, 3.

57. Ibid.

58. ‘Notice to Junior Football Clubs’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 3.

59. ‘Sentinel Cup’, Staffordshire Sentinel, December 10, 1892, 3.

60. Ibid.

61. Ibid.

62. ‘Notice to Junior Football Clubs’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 3.

63. ‘“Sentinel” Junior Charity Cup (Final)’, Staffordshire Sentinel, April 28, 1893, 3.

64. ‘The “Sentinel” Charity Football Cup – Presentation of Medals’, Staffordshire Sentinel, July 8, 1893, 4.

65. ‘Sentinel Charity Cup: The Adjourned Annual Meeting’, Staffordshire Sentinel, August 19, 1893, 3.

66. ‘Sentinel Cup: Adjourned Annual Meeting’, Staffordshire Sentinel.

67. Wray Vamplew, ‘“It is Pleasing to Know That Football Can Be Devoted to Charitable Purposes”: British Football and Charity 1870–1918’, Sport in Society 19, no. 3 (2015): 356–77.

68. ‘“Sentinel” Football Trophies Presented: Nearly £3,000 Donated to Charities’, Staffordshire Sentinel., June 22, 1939, 4.

69. ‘Sentinel Charity Cup – Important Proposal’, Staffordshire Sentinel, July 29, 1893, 3.

70. Vamplew, ‘British Football and Charity’.

71. Vamplew, ‘British Football and Charity’, 364.

72. ‘Sentinel Cup: Adjourned Annual Meeting’, Staffordshire Sentinel.

73. Tupholme and Leake, The Sentinel Story.

74. Ibid.

75. Speake, The Staffordshire Association.

76. Vamplew, ‘British Football and Charity’, 361.

77. ‘Life of a Footballer – How I Got My First Chance in First-Class Football’, Derby Daily Telegraph, March 15, 1924, 5.

78. ‘North Staffordshire Sunday School Cup’, Staffordshire Sentinel, April 26, 1911, 4.

79. Examples include: ‘Burslem Port Vale Football Club – Two New Players Signed On’, Staffordshire Sentinel, June 29, 1912, 6; ‘Wolves Sign On Goalkeeper’, Evening Despatch, August 12, 1943, 4; ‘James Williams, Stoke’, Staffordshire Sentinel, March 4, 1911, 2.

80. ‘Sentinel Charity Cup: Draw for the First Round’, Staffordshire Sentinel, September 12, 1896, 3; Peter Smith, ‘Sentinel Cup to go on Display at The Potteries Museum’, March 28, 2013, http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk.

81. Peter Smith, ‘Sentinel Football – 120 Years in the Making and Still Going Strong’, The Staffordshire Sentinel, April 27, 2013, http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk.

82. Examples of ‘Sentinel Cups’ in Other Sports Include: ‘The Sentinel Cup’, Winsford and Middlewich Guardian, June 21, 1910, 7; ‘Presentation of Pigeon Trophies: “Sentinel” Cup Winner’, Staffordshire Sentinel, December 11, 1939, 8; ‘Snooker Draw’, Staffordshire Sentinel, March 24, 1939, 13; ‘Table Tennis’, Leek Post and Times, March 11, 1939, 6; ‘Fenton Park Bowling Club’, Staffordshire Sentinel, June 27, 1939, 4.

83. Peter Smith, ‘Sentinel Football – 120 Years in the Making and Still Going Strong’, The Staffordshire Sentinel, April 27, 2013, http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk.

84. Matthew Taylor, The Association Game: A History of British Football (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2008).

85. Ann Kramer, The Conscientious Objectors of the First World War: A Determined Resistance (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Social History, 2013).

86. ‘Staffs FA Decision’, Staffordshire Sentinel, September 30, 1939, 5; ‘S.S. Junior Leagues – Getting into Full Swing’, Staffordshire Sentinel, October 7, 1939, 4.

87. Collins, Sport in a Capitalist Society; Huggins, The Victorians and Sport.

88. Huggins, The Victorians and Sport, 150.