A Little known Whitstable Sport.

Whitstable is no stranger to competitive sports such as Football, Cricket, Athletics, Tennis, Rowing, Sailing etc but I have been looking through my notes and jottings and have come across a little known sport that attracted a lot of interest in the 19th Century and a little way into the twentieth, it was the sport of “Goal – Running” and has nothing remotely akin to football. The prominent historians of the day Harris or Hasted make no mention of it in their writings but that does not mean that it was not a competitive village sport.
A goal has been defined as “ an object set up as a place where a race ends – the winning “post”, a word possibly from the early French Gaule signifying a pole or stick, if this is so it may indicate a medieval origin of the practice of goal – running in which a finishing pole or standard was an essential requirement

It was a game that had two opposing sides and was played as a result of a challenge to another team, popular opponents were Oare, Staple Street, Selling, it was played all over East Kent but due to the problems of travel the nearer venues were more popular. It did not matter how many were in the side so long as the sides were of even number, it was played in a field, and usually as close to a public house as is possible, for it has been described as very thirsty work, it was a game for the working class and was regarded by the middle and upper as beneath them to get involved or show interest, although some of the shopkeepers supported the Whitstable side. The Headquarters of the Whitstable side was the East Kent Hotel and I am presuming that this is the place I know as the East Kent.

I will quote from the Whitstable-on-Sea Times Dated July 4th 1891

Whitstable Goal Running Club – A pleasant evening was spent by the members of this Club Saturday last in the presence of some 600 spectators. Amongst the events the events of the occasion were a 150yd handicap race and a 200yd hurdle race, each in four heats. There was also a Goal-Running match between Whitstable and Selling, which the home teem won by eight goals to three.
The Whitstable Brass Band, under the direction of Mr G. Wyver, enhanced the enjoyment of the evening which was finally brought to a close with a supper at the headquarters of the Club, the East Kent Hotel.

August the 22nd 1891
Goal-Running – A match at Goal-Running between Whitstable and Staple Street Clubs, took place at Hernehill on Saturday last resulting in a victory for Whitstable by four goals to nil.

I suppose that the simple delights of this once popular sport belong to a less sophisticated era than the one we live in now, we are more travelled but in a way more reclusive and isolated, villages and indeed pubs had a cricket and a football team which were supported by the landlord, but these are dwindling, the pubs and post offices closing, respect has gone out the window, and I am sorry to say I cannot see an end to this current state of affairs.