Frank Marshall (rugby referee)

Frank Marshall

Rev. Frank Marshall (left) portrayed in a satirical cartoon
Nationality Great Britain
Occupation Church of England Minister, Rugby Union referee & Headmaster
Known for Defending the amateur status of Rugby Union in the British Isles
Title Reverend

Frank Marshall (Reverend) was a British rugby referee and fierce advocate of amateurism in the early years of the sport. His hardline position on payments to players contributed to the schism in the game in 1895 that led to the birth of the breakaway Rugby League

Marshall, who opposed the introduction of so-called “broken-time payments”, made by clubs in northern England to compensate working men for wages lost while playing matches, has been described as the.[1] “witch-finder general, rooting out incipient professionalism”

The headmaster of Almondbury Grammar School, Huddersfield, (now St James’s Grammar School, Rev Marshall believed rugby was a middle-class pastime and burnished his reputation as “the man with bell, book and candle facing the evil spirit of professionalism” [2] by banning his own club, Huddersfield, in 1893 for breaching the amateur code [www.rfu.com/images/museum/pdfs/exhibition/leagues/apart3.pdf] [3]

Marshall, the author of the Football: The Rugby Union Game, first published in 1892, features as a central character in Broken Time,[4] a play by Mick Martin that had its premiere at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield in 2011.

References

""The Independent"" newspaper (GB): Lessons that have not been learnt as history repeats itself.

""Rugby Football Union, Museum"" Publication: Amateurs and Professionals.

""The Stage"" newspaper: "Broken Time" review.

  1. ↑ Hadfield, Dave. "Lessons that have not been learnt as history repeats itself". http://www.independent.co.uk/. The Independent. Retrieved 17 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  2. ↑ Collins, Tony (2006). Rugby's Great Split: Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football. Routledge. ISBN 0415396166.
  3. ↑ Rugby Football Union Museum. "Amateurs and Professionals" (PDF). http://www.rfu.com/. Rugby Football Union. Retrieved 17 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  4. ↑ Berry, Kevin. "Broken Time". http://www.thestage.co.uk/. The Stage. Retrieved 17 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 15, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.