Full Name: Emma Campbell (aka Lady de Montefort Fortescue-Smythe) Sport representing: Lacrosse Venue: Oxford University Parks Biggest personal sporting achievement: | "Known amongst public school girls as LX... Posh or what" | |
Falling off the trampoline at the age of 8 Favourite sporting pastime: Skiing Have you tried your chosen sport before: No Why is this the poshest of all sports: Well I don't know about posh, but at St Trinians they think it's rather super. Lacross Reviewed:
 | | Emma tried Lacrosse |
I didn't really know what to expect when I turned up, track-suited and trainered, at Oxford University Parks for my lacrosse-for-the-uninitiated session. I've never so much as been up close with a lacrosse stick before, let alone actually played the game. But, hey, I've played hockey - how hard can it be? Well quite a lot harder than you might think, it turns out. The first thing you have to master is throwing and catching the ball (it's small, and made of very hard rubber - don't get hit by it if you can help it) using only a stick with a net on the end. The trick is to use your arms like levers, forming a kind of catapult to fling the ball through the air. Flinging it is ok (especially when you've got the president of the University Lacrosse Club on the receiving end - she can field anything) - but catching it is another matter. After a few practice goes, I just about got the hang of it, but how players catch and throw with any accuracy while running at full tilt mid-match is still something of a mystery. Me, I can barely see where the ball is on the field a lot of the time, but experienced players seem to just shoot out an arm - one deft twist of the stick, and the ball is theirs. It's impressive to watch. Lacrosse was originally a native North American game, played by warriors - and after watching a match between Oxford and Bristol universities, I could well believe it. It's fast and furious - and the scarey bit is that, unlike hockey, it's all played at head height. Players assure me it's not that dangerous, and a few bruises and pulled muscles are the worst most people suffer. But even so, everyone has to wear mouthguards, and the goal-keeper has a full American-football-style helmet. It's definitely not a sport for wimps. Rather nervously, I broached the subject of the game's - uh, how shall we put it - image. Both the players who were acting as my personal coaches were no-nonsense about this. Yes, lacrosse does have a posh image - complete with 1950s boarding-school heartiness, and shades of Enid Blyton. But there's really no reason why it should have - except that the schools where it's played tend to be girls' public schools in the south of England. The men's game, they tell me, is pretty macho. It doesn't seem a particularly expensive sport to take part in (none of the pricey paraphanalia of ski-ing or polo) - so really it's all a matter of where you went to school. True of so much, when it comes to the poshometer of English life. |
