We recently acquired copies of a rare early sports magazine dating from 1906 – The Cricketer, The Hockey and Football Player. It was only published for just over a year taking in two cricket and one winter season.

The magazines contain a number of interesting articles that make comment on the state of the different sports being reported on, including one written by a JA Lambie (downloadable as a PDF on the right) that makes some great observations on the differences between club football and club hockey. A former ‘soccer’ player, Mr Lambie comments on, as of 1906, the negative effect that cup and league fixtures have on football and how much more enjoyable hockey was as it was played “purely for the sport of the game”. Indeed, his contention that the lack of cup and league fixtures in hockey were the key to its success was a position that hockey retained for over half a century. The popular success of hockey that he champions in the article ultimately never materialised and today the game is played within a league format at both amateur and professional levels much like football; but, at a time when hockey might be on the cusp of greater things, perhaps we should be mindful of his statement that “The time may come … when the popularity of hockey will bring about its own undoing, as was the case with soccer football from the amateur point of view.”

It is a shame that this magazine did not survive as it might have provided a lot of useful information that we could have used at The Hockey Museum in our various studies.

Mike Smith, July 2016