The Autumn term has a neatness about it for the Games Programmes of most independent schools. Boys play a form of football (the Rugby code for the majority) and girls play Hockey. It has worked pretty well for a hundred years. It might be under a bit of threat from the growing Rugby Refuser Pacifist Lobby, but for the majority of pupils in the majority of schools, it provides a clear and logical programme, and gets through to Christmas pretty satisfactorily.
Then it gets messy. Returning after Festive excesses to short, cold days, weather disruption, general malaise - and a crowded term. For girls it's again straightforward, with Netball replacing Hockey. For boys it's different. With very few schools still playing two terms of Rugby, and an increasing minority offering only Hockey, there emerges the complex issue of choice and compulsion.
The problem starts with Association Football. Back in the day when Hockey was played on grass, and all boys played it, everyone was equal. Then artificial pitches reduced the capacity of schools to occupy large numbers through Hockey, and the absurdity of playing on wet mud on January afternoons in England became evident by contrast. Suddenly numbers of lower ability boys couldn't satisfactorily be occupied by Hockey. And the playing fields were empty.
The logical thing was to introduce the national game. Boys (and many staff) needed little encouragement to embrace it, and, although the standards were often dismal, enthusiasm abounded, and inevitable pressure to establish a fixture list emerged.
That in itself was a triumph. More boys enthusiastically occupied at low costs, and facilities more efficiently used. The problem emerged only when the most able performers, required to uphold the school's honour in Hockey fixtures, wanted to join their peers playing the national game.
Then all sorts of illogical systems were required to protect the primacy of Hockey. Methods abounded of sifting boys on ability and only allowing those who had proved, beyond reasonable doubt, their incompetence with a stick should be allowed a free transfer to Football. The isn't a school that plays both games simultaneously that doesn't wrestle with pupil and parental requests to switch from Hockey to Football. One school had a pair of twins in Year 10 who were both enthusiasts of the national game. One was allowed to play it, his brother wasn't. He wasn't quite bad enough at Hockey.
And then the growing prominence of Rugby Sevens complicates the picture further. With its inherent appeal, and the status of national competition, it has expanded its season and its reach into all age groups. The same boys run from Hockey matches to Sevens practices, and compete in both in the same packed weekends.
Where will it end? Surely the only reasonable answer is choice. Girls schools, who have run two, or more, sports side by side for years, can't see what the problem is.
What would be the impact of having a straight choice between Hockey, Association Football and Sevens? Market forces would probably dictate the numbers favouring each game. The able players may be spread between different games, though there would be a likely gravitation towards the football codes. There would probably be fewer Hockey teams and more Football ones. That's how it is in society. Would that be a disaster? There would be a need for quality control, to ensure that all sports were equally demanding, and operated to the same standards. Choices must be made for positive reasons, not because one option is softer than the others.
Only two things stand in the way of logic. One is the power of conservatism. "We have always done it like this" is the biggest driver of independent school sport. The other is the importance of winning, which fuels the need to have a small number of hopelessly overburdened pupils running from one game to another, playing on Saturdays and Sundays.
It is an unsustainable situation. Rather than invent ever more complex rules, and intricate practice and competition timetables to accommodate an overcrowded programme, perhaps the time has come for wholesale sector modernisation. There are enough difficulties in the Spring Term with weather and other disruptions, without the additional burden of an unmanageable structure.
