The Sporting Times
Encyclopedia
The Sporting Times was a weekly British
newspaper
devoted chiefly to sport, and in particular to horse racing
. It was informally known as The Pink 'Un, as it was printed on pink paper.
, Kent
, who was both its editor and its proprietor, and by a Dr Shorthouse. Corlett also wrote a column in the paper called 'Our Note Book' and was associated with it from 1865 to 1913. The Sporting Times was published on a Saturday, and its competitors included The Field
, The Sportsman, the Sporting Life
, and Bell's Life in London
. According to Alexander Andrews's Chapters in the History of British Journalism, the paper thrived "less upon its racing news than upon its profusion of coarse and scurrilous scraps of tittle-tattle, representing 'society journalism' in its most degraded form".
In the 1870s, the chess
column of The Sporting Times was written by John Wisker
(1846–1884), winner of the 1870 British Chess Championship
.
On 14 September 1889, the magazine Vanity Fair
carried one of its caricatures
, printed in colour, of The Sporting Times editor John Corlett, subtitled The Pink 'Un.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
's story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
, first published in the Strand Magazine
in January 1892, Sherlock Holmes
deduces that a man is keen on gambling by noticing that he has a copy of the paper, commenting - "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet".
In 1922, under the heading The Scandal of Ulysses, the paper reviewed the complete edition of James Joyce
's novel Ulysses
just published in Paris
, its columnist 'Aramis' writing trenchantly:
In Old Pink 'Un Days (1924), the sporting journalist J. B. Booth wrote about his work with the newspaper and its development, with anecdotes of the turf
, the theatre
, and boxing
, and with frank accounts of some of the colourful characters of the worlds of sport and Fleet Street
during the early twentieth century. He followed this up with A Pink 'Un Remembers (1937) and Sporting Times: The Pink 'Un World (1938).
The paper ceased publication in 1932.
Rudyard Kipling
mentions The Sporting Times as The Pink 'Un in his autobiography Something of Myself (1937).
On 29 August 1882, at the Oval
, the England cricket team was beaten for the first time in a home Test match
by Australia, and on 2 September The Sporting Times newspaper published a famous satirical death notice of English cricket:
This notice followed a similar one which had appeared two days before in C. W. Alcock
's Cricket: a Weekly Record of The Game, reading in full: However, The Sporting Times was the first to refer to cremation
and 'ashes'.
The England cricket team toured Australia during the winter of 1882, and after it had won two out of three Tests its captain was presented with an urn containing the ashes of a cricket bail
. Since then, The Ashes
is the trophy England and Australia play for in Test match cricket. The urn is kept in the Lord's Cricket Ground
museum.
The Sporting Times' mock-obituary has been caricatured many times, notably by Australia's Daily Telegraph in describing Australia’s series loss to South Africa at the MCG IN 2008:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
devoted chiefly to sport, and in particular to horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
. It was informally known as The Pink 'Un, as it was printed on pink paper.
History
The paper was founded in 1865 by John Corlett, of Chariton Court, East SuttonEast Sutton
East Sutton is a parish approximately 6 miles south-east of Maidstone in Kent, England. East Sutton is small in number of dwellings but relatively large in area: the parish has a women's prison, a council estate of 16 houses and the church of St Peter and Saint Paul.HMP East Sutton Park is a prison...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, who was both its editor and its proprietor, and by a Dr Shorthouse. Corlett also wrote a column in the paper called 'Our Note Book' and was associated with it from 1865 to 1913. The Sporting Times was published on a Saturday, and its competitors included The Field
The Field (magazine)
The Field is the world's oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853.The famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication...
, The Sportsman, the Sporting Life
Sporting Life (newspaper)
The Sporting Life was a British newspaper published between 1859 and 1998 that was best known for its coverage of horse racing. Latterly it has continued as a multi-sports website....
, and Bell's Life in London
Bell's Life in London
Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle was a British weekly sporting paper published as a pink broadsheet between 1822 and 1886.Bell's Life was founded by Robert Bell, a London printer-publisher....
. According to Alexander Andrews's Chapters in the History of British Journalism, the paper thrived "less upon its racing news than upon its profusion of coarse and scurrilous scraps of tittle-tattle, representing 'society journalism' in its most degraded form".
In the 1870s, the chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
column of The Sporting Times was written by John Wisker
John Wisker
John Wisker was an English chess player and journalist. By 1870, he was one of the world's ten best chess players, and the second-best English-born player, behind only Joseph Henry Blackburne.Wisker moved to London in 1866 to become a reporter for the City Press and befriended Howard Staunton...
(1846–1884), winner of the 1870 British Chess Championship
British Chess Championship
The British Chess Championship is organised by the English Chess Federation. There are separate championships for men and women. Since 1923 there have been sections for juniors, and since 1982 there has been an over-sixty championship. The championship venue usually changes every year and has been...
.
On 14 September 1889, the magazine Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine, historical)
Vanity Fair has been the title of at least five magazines, including an 1859–1863 American publication, an 1868–1914 British publication, an unrelated 1902–1904 New York magazine, and a 1913–1936 American publication edited by Condé Nast, which was revived in 1983.Vanity Fair was notably a...
carried one of its caricatures
Vanity Fair caricatures
The following is a list of caricatures published by the British magazine Vanity Fair -Categories:- Caricatures :...
, printed in colour, of The Sporting Times editor John Corlett, subtitled The Pink 'Un.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the seventh story of twelve in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
, first published in the Strand Magazine
Strand Magazine
The Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional stories and factual articles founded by George Newnes. It was first published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950 running to 711 issues, though the first issue was on sale well before Christmas 1890.Its immediate...
in January 1892, Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
deduces that a man is keen on gambling by noticing that he has a copy of the paper, commenting - "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet".
In 1922, under the heading The Scandal of Ulysses, the paper reviewed the complete edition of James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's novel Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
just published in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, its columnist 'Aramis' writing trenchantly:
In Old Pink 'Un Days (1924), the sporting journalist J. B. Booth wrote about his work with the newspaper and its development, with anecdotes of the turf
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, and with frank accounts of some of the colourful characters of the worlds of sport and Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
during the early twentieth century. He followed this up with A Pink 'Un Remembers (1937) and Sporting Times: The Pink 'Un World (1938).
The paper ceased publication in 1932.
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
mentions The Sporting Times as The Pink 'Un in his autobiography Something of Myself (1937).
Origin of the Ashes
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, the England cricket team was beaten for the first time in a home Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
by Australia, and on 2 September The Sporting Times newspaper published a famous satirical death notice of English cricket:
This notice followed a similar one which had appeared two days before in C. W. Alcock
C. W. Alcock
Charles William Alcock was an influential English sportsman and administrator. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of the FA Cup....
's Cricket: a Weekly Record of The Game, reading in full: However, The Sporting Times was the first to refer to cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
and 'ashes'.
The England cricket team toured Australia during the winter of 1882, and after it had won two out of three Tests its captain was presented with an urn containing the ashes of a cricket bail
Bail (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bail is one of the two smaller sticks placed on top of the three stumps to form a wicket. The bails are used to determine when the wicket is broken, which in turn is one of the critical factors in determining whether a batsman is out bowled, stumped, run out or hit wicket...
. Since then, The Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
is the trophy England and Australia play for in Test match cricket. The urn is kept in the Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
museum.
The Sporting Times
RIP, Australian Cricket, slaughtered by South Africa, December 30 at the MCG, aided and abetted by incompetent selectors, inept batting, impotent bowling, dreadful catching, poor captaincy.”