Volume 35, Number 14 · September 29, 1988
Gentlemen vs. Players
By Noel Annan
The Pride and the Fall: The Dream and Illusion of Britain as a Great Nation
by Correlli Barnett
Free Press, 359 pp., $22.95
From 1806 and until 1962 every summer there was a fixture at Lords Cricket Ground called Gentlemen and Players. Both sides were chosen from those who played regularly for their county teams. The Gentlemen were amateurs, well-to-do rentiers, or more often young employees whose firms gave them leave during the season to play cricket in the hope that they would make profitable business contacts. The Players were working-class professionals whom the county cricket clubs paid to play. The Gentlemen ambled down the steps of the pavilion onto the pitch; the Players emerged from a side-gate.
Review, 7259 words
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