ABSTRACT
Paul Ward’s essay makes charges against the historical study of sport, or rather the practitioners of the historical study of sport, that are likely to raise some hackles among readers of this journal – although he notes that many of those charges have been made elsewhere by those very same practitioners; we should not be too offended. What is more, he makes these comments as a critical friend with the courage to step outside his realm of expertise and thus risk the opprobrium of our club’s insiders: critical friends’ observations are important – especially when they help us question our taken-for-granted conventions, as they do in this case. As a result, I both welcome and appreciate Ward’s polemic.
