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A Sporting Catharsis

A week after Wimbledon, and in the midst of the Ashes, Sarah Dunant reflects on sport's cathartic power.

As Britain basks in post-Wimbledon glory, amid the Ashes, Sarah Dunant reflects on how sport has - throughout history - been used by the authorities to help populations let off steam.

In Florence, in the late 1500s, townspeople played a form of football that allowed them to wrestle, punch and immobilize their opponents in any way they liked. Venice had a spectacularly violent sport of bridge-fighting where opposing teams "armed with sticks...dipped in boiling oil beat the hell out of each other".

Civic sporting therapy - past and present - has for centuries, Sarah argues, "proved a creative alternative to our recurring tendency to kill each other".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

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10 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Jul 2013 08:48
91热爆 Radio 4

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A Point of View: Sporting spectacle on the piazza

The Ashes are under way in England, but another historic sporting battle is fought out every year in Florence - an ancient no-holds-barred ball game played in one of the city's most famous piazzas, as writer Sarah Dunant explains.

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Credits

Presenter Sarah Dunant
Producer Adele Armstrong

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  • Fri 12 Jul 2013 20:50
    91热爆 Radio 4
  • Sun 14 Jul 2013 08:48
    91热爆 Radio 4

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