sport history | The British Newspaper Archive Blog - Part 3

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Exploring the Real ‘Chariots of Fire’ – As Reported in Our Newspapers

Nearly one hundred years ago athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell took the Olympic Games and the world by storm, their heroics on the track immortalised in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. But how were Abrahams’s and Liddell’s record-breaking feats reported on in the newspapers of the time? Were they celebrated in, say, the same way we celebrate our sporting heroes of today? In this special blog, we will explore the headlines behind the real Chariots of Fire, and in the

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‘Pluck, Tenacity and Inspired Guidance’ – Exploring the Birth of the Paralympic Games

The first Paralympics took place in Rome in 1960. But this was not the beginning of competitive sport for people with disabilities; indeed, the origins of the Paralympics can partly be traced to the aftermath of the Second World War and the work undertaken at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Archers at Stoke Mandeville Hospital | The Sphere | 21 August 1948 And nor was it the culmination of such work; the Paralympics in Rome were only open to those with mobility or

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Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week has been a buzzing one at The Archive, as we have an incredible nine brand new titles available to search, with specialist trade union publication the Bee-Hive joining us, as well as new titles from across England, Scotland and Wales. We’ve added 108,440 new pages over the last seven days, whilst we have also been busy updating 35 of our existing titles. So read on to discover more about our new titles from Teignmouth to Kilmarnock, and also to find out about an unlikely sport that

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Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week at The Archive we have been busy adding another 73,020 brand new pages to our collection. We’re delighted to welcome two brand new titles as well, which both hail from the county of Lancashire. So read on to discover the latest from Lancashire, what pages we have added to our existing titles, and how baseball fever swept Britain in the 1890s. Register now and explore the Archive First member of our Lancashire double act this week is the Haslingden Gazette. Established in 1863, this weekly

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Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

Our presses have been on overdrive as we bring to you over 200,000 brand new pages in this week’s update. To be precise, we have added 203,966 brand new pages, with five brand new titles joining us from England and Wales, as well as the addition of a very special new sporting title. We’ve also made updates to sixteen of our existing titles, spanning England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Read on to discover more about all of this week’s updates! Register now and explore the Archive Leading the

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Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week at The Archive we have added 51,894 brand new pages, which span over 120 years of history, to our collection. Furthermore, we are delighted to welcome two brand new titles, namely Nottinghamshire’s Beeston Gazette and Echo, and Berkshire’s Maidenhead Advertiser. Over the past seven days we’ve also been busily adding to some of our existing titles – read on to find out more. Register now and explore the Archive Published in Beeston, three and a half miles south-west of Nottingham, the Beeston Gazette and Echo appeared

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‘Nothing Else But Cricket Matches All Summer’ – A Look at Cricket in the 1730s

Performing a search for cricket in our oldest British Newspaper Archive publications (the Archive’s earliest pages run from 1699) it is possible to discover the fascinating history of the enduringly popular sport. In this special blog we will look at cricket’s early association with royalty, its emergence as a gambling sport, and its inevitable explosion in popularity. Kentish Gazette | 23 June 1773 An early and passionate advocate for the sport was Prince Frederick of Wales, father of George III, who

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