“There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night, Ten to make and the match to win, A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play, and the last man in.” The stage is set as the final overs of this exciting cricket match unfold but this is not a newspaper report of one of the Indian Premier League cricket matches but this is a poem written over a hundred years ago by a man called Henry Newbolt. Few perhaps consider cricket as an appropriate subject for poetry but we shall leave that for another day; we shall rather get back to the action! “And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame, But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote, ‘Play up! Play up! And play the game!’” This is the Number Eleven batsman’s chance for glory, to go down in the record books or even to win his Colours, but that is not what is upon his mind: it is simply to be honourable in how he performs, to be worthy of the confidence his captain has in him to win the day, to play the game honestly, honourably, bravely, to the very end.
Of significance, we never know if he scored the ten runs required and received the accolades of his team-mates, a fact which perhaps best underlines that the result is not actually of any real importance. That refers back to another sporting poem, this time by Grantland Rice, which says “For when the One Great Scorer comes To write against your name, He marks not that you won or lost But how you played the game.” Newbolt’s poem moves on from the school cricket pitch to a battle field in a far-off land where “The sand of the desert is sodden red” with the blood of soldiers, and the former Number Eleven batsman is now facing an even bigger crisis – their commander is dead, the guns are broken, the soldiers are exhausted and the battle is long. However, what helps him through this moment was not his military training “But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks – ‘Play up! Play up! And play the game!’” The poem ends with the strong declaration that those words serve as a torch through all their life experiences to those who went before: it refers to how a future soldier learns stoicism in cricket matches at his school. “Play up! Play up! And play the game!” Sport, we are reminded, prepares young people for all life experiences, more than anything else.
The Battle of Waterloo, fought in 1815, was a hugely significant battle in English history as the English general Wellington defeated the long-heralded and hitherto victorious French commander Napoleon. Many will have studied in great detail how he managed to achieve this extraordinary feat but Wellington himself is alleged to have offered a very simple but profound assessment. “The Battle of Waterloo,” he said, “Was won on the playing fields of Eton” (seen to be one of the top independent schools in Britain). This was, it should be stressed, not because pupils at Eton College played sport violently, viciously or vindictively. It was not because of tactics they used in their school sport matches that were transferrable to warfare. It was because the values that were imposed in school sport, the spirit engendered in sporting teams at school, the lessons learned while playing sport at school were hugely relevant and applicable to all situations in life. Eton College, and the other independent schools of the time that ensured sport played an integral part of school life, prepared them for life (and death); they equipped them for life.
The legendary pop group Abba’s rise to fame began at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 when they sang with such energy their trademark song, “Waterloo”; it was a strange subject to sing about but it picks up on the expression of “meeting one’s Waterloo”, of facing our ultimate obstacle and being defeated by it. How we face defeat matters greatly. Waterloo, for Abba, though was a victory.
Right now, let us be clear, we are in a war, for the minds and the future not just of our children but also of this country. The future of this country and indeed this world can be won on the sports fields of Zimbabwe. It will be won through the vital lessons that are inculcated through sport in our schools. It will come through the life experiences our youngsters face while playing sport at school – coping with pressure, believing in what they are fighting for, acting with dignity and determination, honesty and humility. It will come too when they play up and play the game, in the right manner, for the right reasons. If we do not realise this, then we too will have met our Waterloo – we will have lost all hope. There may well be a breathless hush to see how we react.
