Yorkshire folk are ‘right proud’ of their sporting heritage and it is likely that our Yorkshire ancestors will have taken part in some form of sporting activity and that this activity may have been recorded. There may, however, still be pitfalls in carrying out the research necessary to track their deeds. In the 19th century, for example, what we now regard as a sport was often classified as a pastime. On the other hand, shooting, fishing, stalking and hunting were regarded as sports. This can often cause problems when looking out for, say, football ancestors in Victorian sporting literature.

Similarly, the difference between amateur and professional sportsmen is not always clear. Whereas Victorians and Edwardians often distinguished one from the other by including or omitting Christian names or initials, in fact many ‘amateurs’ received under-the-table boot money. At the same time gentlemen amateur players could enjoy a complimentary cigar worth more than the single-match appearance money earned by a professional cricketer! Even a definition of Yorkshire itself can cause problems as Sporting Yorkshire is different from the elements which make up the modern ‘political’ Yorkshires. Places now removed from Yorkshire political life such as Middlesbrough and Redcar in the east and Sedbergh in the west were linked to Sporting Yorkshire in the past and remain so today.

In my book Sporting Ancestors (2012) I explored more than 30 sports of historic interest to those with British roots. In such a short space as this article it is not possible to cover them all in detail so I shall focus on a handful of sports, with the main thrust dedicated to ‘the round and the oval’ (ie association football, rugby league and union) and to cricket as well. There is also a sideways glance at sports which attracted female interest. With the aid of TheGenealogist’s easy to use search engines, it has been possible to find a number of examples of Yorkshire sportsmen and women which might whet the appetites of readers for further personal research.

Baseball

Even baseball comes into the picture in regard to Sporting Yorkshire. This remarkable programme for a 1937 match between the Yorkshire League and the Canadian National Side in Sunderland was discovered in a Wearside Archive. One of the promoters of the match was a young Eddie Waring who later became a legendary rugby league commentator.

Sporting Women

So far there has been no reference to sportswomen in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Archery was one of the sports carried out by women in late Victorian and Edwardian times – in fact the national championships were held in York in 1889 and 1908. Other sports (all amateur) adopted by ‘ladies’ were swimming, tennis, croquet, golf and hockey. Competitive tennis and hockey were often well-covered in the local press in the early 20th century. There was also female participation in the early Olympics – London in 1908 in particular – so if there are rumours of an early female Olympian in the family, it may be worth following up. Unfortunately etiquette meant that women were often recorded politely as Miss or Mrs without initials which can cause problems for researchers. However, in 1909 two ladies called Mitford played hockey for Yorkshire against Lancashire – both from the Filey club. TheGenealogist reveals a family of young Mitford ladies living at the vicarage at Humnanby close to Filey. This may well be the right family as, with the exception of swimming and football, female participation in sport tended to be middle and upper class.