Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

eflection of similar events that were occurring in the public
schools in England. 34
At the turn of the century the imitation
of English cultural patterns offered the new nation some degree
of comfort and security.
There were, nevertheless, some difficulties associated
with the development of the games cult at Wesley. The problems
that arose confirm to a degree the fears that Darling came to
voice at a later day about the inherent disadvantages of an
athleticism that he believed placed undue emphasis on winning
teams and the glorifying of a select elite. The complaint of
some boys at the school was, paradoxically, that there were too
few opportunities for competition in their favoured sport. In
a Letter to the Wesley College Chronicle in 1905, a junior pupil
suggested that "it is very evident that some reform in the
present system of sport in the school is needed". 35
The correspondent,
V. Upton-Brown, wanted a system of competition
within the school that would cater for more boys wanting to
play in matches. Form games were "an irregular event" and he
proposed the scheme of "district" competitions in a wider range
of sports - cricket, football, rowing and "even tennis". A
disgruntled cricketer was more forthright in his disapproval of
the sporting scene in 1906.' His plea was for more "match play",
something rarely guaranteed unless one was a member of the
first eleven. He wrote:
Many a boy who has turned out regularly to cricket
practice this season has at the close of it wondered
if he had wasted his time in so doing. In the first
half there has been one match for the second eleven
and one for the third eleven...When a boy plays in a
match he gains experience and confidence - two large
factors in cricket. Hoping then, that those who
arrange the above matches will remember that "practice
makes perfect". 36
These comments appear at odds with Adamson's earlier determination
as sports master in the 1880s to provide more competition
within the school and open up keener interest in inter-school
matches. Strangely, the rest of the public schools and the
other principal private secondary schools such as University
High, Geelong College and Haileybury had, at least in cricket,
a highly structured organisation involving second, third and
fourth teams competing on a regular basis. 37
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