Browsing by Author "Watson G"

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    A Supplementary Sport? Towards a Historical Analysis of the Development of Badminton in New Zealand, c. 1870–1939
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-12-20) Ngo SZ; Watson G
    Although badminton has been played in New Zealand for approximately 150 years it has received only minimal attention in scholarly discussions of sport. This paper evaluates the historical development of badminton in New Zealand between 1870 and 1939. It argues that from the last quarter of the nineteenth century badminton was initially played alongside games such as croquet and tennis in mostly private venues as a form of upper-class recreation. It then gained a wider appeal primarily as a winter sport that could be played by tennis players during the off-season. During the interwar period it was promoted as a suitable form of recreation for women because it was non-contact and believed to be not overly strenuous. Although its construction as a useful winter sport for tennis players and a suitable game for women helped badminton achieve a position as a niche sport, such characterizations hindered its further development because it was seen as a supplementary sport to tennis, the then dominant racket sport in New Zealand. Moreover, in comparison to its contemporary racket sports badminton was often criticized as an inferior game. Accordingly, it occupied a somewhat ambiguous place in New Zealand’s sporting hierarchy.
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    ‘Cheap, Scientific and Free From Danger’: Accounting for the Development of Field Hockey in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-08-05) Watson G; Hess R
    Hockey’s emergence as an organized sport in New Zealand is typically regarded as having occurred during the 1890s. Reverend Henry Mathias, who formed the Kaiapoi Hockey Club in 1895, has been credited with a particularly influential part in the game’s development. Indeed, there is considerable truth to this foundation story in that the formation of clubs in Christchurch was the catalyst for the adoption of the 11-a-side form of the game played under the rules of the Hockey Association of England. Arguably, however, these 1890s developments represent a reformatory phase rather than an origin story in and of themselves. The analysis of online newspaper records contained in this paper suggests a widespread presence of informal games from at least as early as the 1860s, through to the formation of the Dunedin Hockey Club in 1876. Hockey also appears to have been played in schools from at least as early as the 1870s and, outside of school, was sometimes associated with ‘larrikinism’. By the 1890s, though, it was perceived to be a respectable game, supported by dedicated patrons and a much more developed sporting infrastructure in New Zealand.