"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
The Sunday Sport question
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The Sunday Sport question, Simon Jones, Jubilee Centre, Cambridge 1987
The booklet gives an excellent summary of the history of Sunday sport in the UK. However, it now over 20 years out of date. The modern reader - used to Test cricket, Wimbledon finals, two televised Premier League football matches etc on a typical Sunday - may be surprised to learn that Sunday sport is very much a recent phenomenon.
The first Sunday Observance Act was in 1625 (Followed by subsequent Acts in 1627 and 1677) which specifically prohibited (among other things) "meetings, assemblies or concourses of people out of their parishes on the Lord's Day...for any sport or pastime whatsoever, or within their parish for any bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes, common plays and unlawful exercises or pastimes". (Page 3)
However, throughout the 20th century there was an apparent agreement among the civil authorities not to enforce the law.
In 1964 The Crawthorne committee report to the government stated "there is a case for some relaxation of the prohibition on spectators' sports on Sunday but we do not recommend that it should be completely abolished" (Paragraph 115.of the report).
One of Crawthorne's concerns was effect on neighbourhoods of large crowds.
There was also issue of police, transport, local authority support services etc having to work. In fact the committee felt that the number of people required to work in order to put on a Sunday sports event put it in a different league from Sunday theatre or cinema.
While the book gives a useful historical survey, it does not address theological issues. My own book What the book says about sporthas a chapter on the subject.