Noblesse Oblige

Writing recently in London's Sunday Express, British Columnist Beverly Baxter (member of Parliament from Southgate) addressed himself to a popular subject--that curious aspect of British sportsmanship which seems to make Britons "prouder of a stubborn defeat than of a glorious victory."

"Is it not time that we threw off our sentimental obsession about losing well and changed over to the psychology of winning well?" Baxter demanded. "Let our cricketers decide now that when the Australians come to England they shall be pounded into submission . . . Our lawn tennis players might decide now to win three sets instead of one at Wimbledon . . . Our Walker Cup golfers could will themselves into believing that even a 15-yard putt will go in if the ball is correctly directed to the hole."

If his attitude was out of line, Pundit Baxter did not "have to resign from [his] club" as he feared. But last week the Oxford undergraduate newspaper Comment undertook to set him straight. "There is only one reason why we have a sporting willingness to lose, and that is because we are in no doubt of our own ultimate superiority . . . That Cambridge should bother to win the Boat Race with such monotonous, and it must be said, ill-bred regularity, is a sign of a sense of despair. No loyal Oxford man can be anything but proud of the crew which sank with such a spirit of good humor and noblesse oblige [TIME, April 2].

"The English heavyweights who are flattened by middle-aged American bartenders have earned the gratitude of our country. If once we started to feel that the process should be reversed, that middle-aged English bartenders should stretch the flower of American manhood on blood-blotted canvas, then we should indeed be in danger of losing our ineffable consciousness of inevitable superiority."

And Cambridge was not to be outdone in upholding the British tradition. In a letter last week to Yale's Crew Coach Jim Rathschmidt, Cambridge Captain Brian Lloyd handsomely apologized for the smashing, four-length victory of his crew over Yale this spring (TIME, April 23). He wanted Rathschmidt to know that the whole Cambridge shell was "terribly embarrassed" and deeply regretted forcing the Yale oarsmen to race so early in the season.

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