ABSTRACT
The fate of sports clubs in wartime could be seen as part of the more general story of the relationship between voluntarism and the state. Existing studies have tended to portray British sports clubs in the mid-twentieth century as conservative, inward-looking organisations eager to preserve traditional ethics of play and behaviour – amateurism especially – and to limit and obstruct reforming initiatives. Sports clubs are also a convenient site to examine the culture of voluntarism in wartime Britain. The professional football codes were a particular target of the advocates and spokespeople of amateur sport. The policy of the National Sporting Club in ensuring that, while it could not continue as in peacetime, there had to be ‘days and nights when sport must have its fling’, was applauded as judicious and effective. The official pronouncements of amateur sporting bodies were remarkably similar, though without the same sense of urgency and the provisions for restructuring competition for member clubs.
