Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/68

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SCHOOL CRICKET
49

on the making or marring of a boy's character, and with this remark I cordially agree. There are many virtues which a game may instil into the boy, but the three most important are unselfishness, esprit de corps, and pluck. For youth, that is, boys, no game ought to be encouraged that does not keep these three points in view, and golf cannot be said to come up to the mark in this respect; but I am only speaking of youth and boyhood. As far as unselfishness and esprit de corps are concerned golf is a bad game; you play for yourself, and therefore it may be said to be selfish and lacking in esprit de corps. When a man has reached thirty years of age he may be expected to have reached a time of life when his character is moulded and fixed in some shape or other: if he is a good sportsman, well and good; if not, he never will be. I say, however, with confidence, that to train him into becoming a good sportsman at thirty ought to be one of the purposes and objects of games at school and during boyhood, and for this cricket is a better game than golf.

I do not wish it to be inferred from what I have said that golf is anything but a grand