The Sporting Times

{{Short description|British newspaper devoted chiefly to sport}} {{italic title}} {{Redirect|The Pink 'Un|the Norwich City F.C. newspaper|The Pink'un}} {{Use British English|date=March 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}}

[[File:John Corlett, Vanity Fair, 1889-09-14.jpg|thumb|right|upright|John Corlett, first editor of ''The Sporting Times'', caricature in ''Vanity Fair'', 1889]]

'''''The Sporting Times''''' (founded 1865, ceased publication 1932) was a weekly British newspaper devoted chiefly to sport, and in particular to horse racing. It was informally known as '''''The Pink 'Un''''', as it was printed on pink paper.

==History== The paper was founded in 1865<ref name=andrews>Andrews, Alexander, ''Chapters in the History of British Journalism'', Chapter XXIII, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AbA9vB0e9i8C&pg=PA322 p. 322] online at books.google.co.uk, accessed 2 July 2008</ref> by John Corlett, of Charlton Court, East Sutton, Kent, who was both its editor and its proprietor, and by Dr Joseph Henry Shorthouse.<ref>[http://www.roll-of-honour.org/Kent/CanterburyBoer.html CANTERBURY BOER WAR (SOUTH AFRICA) MEMORIAL] at roll-of-honour.org, accessed 2 July 2008</ref> Corlett also wrote a column in the paper called 'Our Note Book' and was associated with it from 1865 to 1913.<ref name=price30>{{cite book|last=Price|first=Warren C.|title=Literature of Journalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncDF8wuZvK8C&pg=PA30|year=1959|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-1-4529-1245-5|page=30}}</ref><ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WH18810709.2.21&cl=&srpos=0&st=1&e=-------en--1----0-all TURF GOSSIP] in the Wanganui Herald, Volume XV, Issue 4182, 9 July 1881, p. 3, online at paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, accessed 2 July 2008</ref> ''The Sporting Times'' was published on a Saturday, and its competitors included ''The Field'', ''The Sportsman'', the ''Sporting Life'', and ''Bell's Life in London''.<ref name=Itzkowitz>Itzkowitz, David C., 'Fair Enterprise or Extravagant Speculation: Investment, Speculation, and Gambling in Victorian England', in ''Victorian Studies'' vol. 45, no. 1, Autumn 2002, pp. 121–147</ref> According to Alexander Andrews's ''Chapters in the History of British Journalism'', the paper thrived "less upon its racing news than upon its profusion of coarse and scurrilous scraps of tittle-tattle, representing 'society journalism' in its most degraded form".<ref name=andrews/>

In the 1870s the chess column of ''The Sporting Times'' was written by John Wisker (1846–1884), winner of the 1870 British Chess Championship.<ref>Gaige, Jeremy, ''Chess Personalia, a Bibliography'' (London, McFarland, 1987, {{ISBN|0-7864-2353-6}}, p. 467</ref>

On 14 September 1889 the magazine ''Vanity Fair'' carried one of its caricatures, printed in colour, of ''The Sporting Times'' editor John Corlett, subtitled ''The Pink 'Un''.<ref>Vanity Fair magazine dated 14 September 1889</ref>

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", first published in the ''Strand Magazine'' in January 1892, Sherlock Holmes deduces that a man is keen on gambling by noticing that he has a copy of the paper, commenting - "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet".<ref>{{wikisource-inline|The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle}}</ref>

In 1922, under the heading "The Scandal of ''Ulysses''", the paper reviewed the complete edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' just published in Paris, its columnist "Aramis" writing trenchantly:<ref>Aramis, "The Scandal of ''Ulysses''" in ''The Sporting Times'' 34 (1 April 1922), p. 4</ref> {{cquote|... appears to have been written by a perverted lunatic who has made a speciality of the literature of the latrine... I have no stomach for ''Ulysses''... James Joyce is a writer of talent, but in Ulysses he has ruled out all the elementary decencies of life and dwells appreciatively on things that sniggering louts of schoolboys guffaw about. In addition to this stupid glorification of mere filth, the book suffers from being written in the manner of a demented George Meredith. There are whole chapters of it without any punctuation or other guide to what the writer is really getting at. Two-thirds of it is incoherent, and the passages that are plainly written are devoid of wit, displaying only a coarse salacrity{{sic}} intended for humour.}}

In ''Old Pink 'Un Days'' (1924) the sporting journalist J. B. Booth wrote about his work with the newspaper and its development, with anecdotes of the turf, the theatre, and boxing, and with frank accounts of some of the colourful characters of the worlds of sport and Fleet Street during the early twentieth century.<ref name=maryward>[http://www.marywardbooks.com/books/Old-Pink-Un-Days-by-J-B-Booth/mw0012759111.htm Arts / Antique & Vintage Books / Old Pink Un Days by J B Booth] at marywardbooks.com, accessed 2 July 2008</ref> He followed this up with ''A Pink 'Un Remembers'' (1937)<ref name=price179>Price, Warren C., ''op. cit.'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=ncDF8wuZvK8C&q=%22Sporting+Times%22&pg=PA179 p. 179] online at books.google.co.uk, accessed 2 July 2008</ref> and ''Sporting Times: The Pink 'Un World'' (1938).<ref name=price30/>

The paper is mentioned in the novel ''Burmese Days'' by George Orwell:

{{cquote| Year after year you sit in Kipling-haunted little clubs, whisky to right of you, ''Pink'un'' to left of you, listening and eagerly agreeing while Colonel Bodger develops his theory that these bloody nationalists should be boiled in oil.}}

In P.G. Wodehouse's short story "Bingo and the Little Woman" Bertie Wooster reveals that, "bar a weekly wrestle with the ''Pink 'Un'' and an occasional dip into the form-book, I'm not much of a lad for reading". [[Image:Joseph Clayton Clark A Reader of The Sporting Times.jpg|thumb|250px|A Reader of The Sporting Times by Joseph Clayton Clark, {{circa|1900}}]] The paper ceased publication in 1932.

Rudyard Kipling mentions ''The Sporting Times'' as ''The Pink 'Un'' in his autobiography ''Something of Myself'' (1937).<ref>[http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_schoolbefore_notes.htm Notes on 'The School Before its Time'], a chapter of ''Something of Myself'', online at kipling.org.uk, accessed 2 July 2008</ref>

===Origin of the Ashes=== {{see also|The Ashes}} [[File:DeathofEnglishCricket.jpg|250px|thumb|The death notice which first named the Ashes ]] On 29 August 1882, at the Oval, the England cricket team was beaten for the first time in a home Test match by Australia, and on 2 September ''The Sporting Times'' newspaper published a famous satirical death notice of English cricket, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks:<ref>Perry, Alex, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070528171942/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/sport_04.shtml Victorian Sport: Playing by the Rules] at bbc.co.uk, accessed 2 July 2008</ref><ref name=vauxhall>[http://www.vauxhallsociety.org.uk/Oval.html Oval Cricket Ground] at vauxhallsociety.org.uk, accessed 2 July 2008</ref><ref>[http://www.theoldnewspaper.info/en/1865/8/29/ The Old Newspaper] at theoldnewspaper.info, accessed 2 July 2008</ref>

{{blockquote|{{center|In Affectionate Remembrance OF <big>''ENGLISH CRICKET'',</big> WHICH DIED AT THE OVAL ON <big>29th AUGUST, 1882,</big> Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. <big>R. I. P.</big> ''N.B.—The body will be cremated and the'' ''ashes taken to Australia.''}}}}

This notice followed a similar one which had appeared two days before in C. W. Alcock's ''Cricket: a Weekly Record of The Game'', reading in full:<ref>Alcock, C. W., (ed.), ''Cricket: a Weekly Record of The Game'' dated 31 August 1882</ref> {{cquote|SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ENGLAND'S SUPREMACY IN THE CRICKET-FIELD WHICH EXPIRED ON THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, AT THE OVAL: "ITS END WAS PEATE".}} However, ''The Sporting Times'' was the first to refer to cremation and 'the ashes'.

The England cricket team toured Australia during the winter of 1882, and after it had won two out of three Tests its captain was presented with an urn containing the ashes of a cricket bail. Since then, The Ashes is the notional trophy England and Australia play for in Test match cricket. The urn is kept in the Lord's Cricket Ground museum.<ref name=vauxhall/> Due to its age and fragile condition, the original Ashes urn is not presented to the winning team; instead a Waterford Crystal trophy (first presented in 1999) and replica urns are presented.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lords.org/news/our-blogs/the-cricket-history-blog/what-is-the-ashes-trophy/|title=What is the Ashes trophy?|website=www.lords.org|access-date=31 July 2016}}</ref>

The ''Sporting Times''<nowiki>'</nowiki> mock-obituary has been caricatured many times, notably by Australia's ''Daily Telegraph'' in describing Australia's series loss to South Africa at the MCG in 2008: <blockquote> RIP, Australian Cricket, slaughtered by South Africa, 30 December at the MCG, aided and abetted by incompetent selectors, inept batting, impotent bowling, dreadful catching, poor captaincy".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sportstaronnet.com/tss3202/stories/20090110501301200.htm|title = Sports News Today, Live Cricket Score, Football News, Sports Videos and Match Highlights}}</ref> </blockquote>

==Bibliography== *Booth, J[ohn] B[ennion]., ''Old Pink 'Un Days'' (London, Grant Richards Ltd., 1924, 413pp.), includes an illustration by Phil May and a caricature by Ralph Rowland<ref name=maryward/> *Booth, J. B., ''Master and Men: Pink 'Un Yesterdays'' (London, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1926, 380 pp.) *Booth, J. B., ''London Town'' (London, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1929, 324pp.) *Booth, J. B., ''Pink Parade'' (London, Thornton Butterworth, 1933, 317pp.), foreword by Charles B. Cochran *Booth, J. B., ''A Pink 'Un Remembers'' (London, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1937, xx + 286 pp.), foreword by C. B. Cochran<ref name=price179/> *Booth, J. B., ''Sporting Times: The Pink 'Un World'' (London, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1938, xx + 284 pp.), foreword by Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale KG<ref name=price30/> *Booth, J. B., ''Life, Laughter and Brass Hats'' (London, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1939, xvi + 334pp.) *Booth, J. B., ''Palmy Days'' (London, The Richards Press, 1957, 232pp.), foreword by Sir Arthur Bryant

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sporting Times}} Category:Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:Horse racing mass media in the United Kingdom Category:Newspapers established in 1865 Category:Newspapers disestablished in 1932 Category:Sports newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:1932 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:Defunct weekly newspapers