Posted by John Richardson
Although not hopelessly myopic, I could certainly have described myself as a unco-ordinated child.
To Tim's comment therefore, I want to say "Three Million Cheers". It was implicit to my delight in the books as a child that there was almost no mention of team games. Indeed I always regarded John as having momentarily "Let the side down" (groan) in mentioning them at all, even in passing.
There is also remarkably little spite or comments about appearance/ability etc between the children. Unrealistically little perhaps. The nearest we get to it is also in WH: The S&As are pretty snobby at first about the urban D's: they must have looked a hopeless pair: glasses, plaits, newspaper to light fires. But as Nancy, whose whole concept of girl-hoodd is challenged by Dorothea, finally musters herself to say: "There's not anything absolutely wrong with plaits" (QFM - quotation from memory).
This tendency only begins to change in Secret Water, where the much larger cast of children, and the far less developed affection and loyalty between the S&As and the Eeels leads to more realisitc rivalry and tension.
John
P.S. Following on from Phil's comments: Even in the early 80's, and even at my rather unfamous private (not public) school, we
still played rugby three times a week. In five years at prep school, I managed one try. So although I may have done better than
Dick Callum (who ingruously was best swimmer at school for 'men' under-12), you can see where some of the appeal of S&A
lay.