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‘Messing About on the River.’ Trenton Oldfield and the Possibilities of Sports Protest

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Sport, Protest and Globalisation

Part of the book series: Global Culture and Sport Series ((GCS))

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Abstract

In April 2012 Trenton Oldfield, an Australian man in his mid-30s, disrupted the annual Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities by going for a swim in the River Thames. For some, Oldfield’s timely swim in a public space was an imaginative and well-executed act of peaceful, civil disobedience which achieved maximum exposure and caused minimal damage. Live television coverage of the event and his use of social media allowed him to promote his manifesto ‘Elitism leads to Tyranny’ with Oldfield’s actions an example of individual, autonomous political activity. This chapter considers the opportunities that a large sport event, here the Boat Race, offers to such individual autonomist protesters and how new forms of digital web-based media are changing the dynamic between sport, media and protest. The discussion focuses on response to Oldfield’s protest by sections of the English media and the UK government who, upset to see their sporting pleasures disrupted, sought to deport him from the UK.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ‘Free George Davis’ campaign sought to increase public awareness of armed robber George Davis. Although his first conviction was overturned, he was later jailed for two other cases of armed robbery.

  2. 2.

    An ASBO is an Anti-Social Behaviour Order issued by UK courts to people who behave in a persistently unacceptable manner. They were subsequently replaced by Criminal Behaviour Orders, and similar to ASBOs, aimed at stopping anti-social behaviour before it escalates.

  3. 3.

    Topolski (1990) states that in 1986 the commercial sponsor, Beefeater Gin, paid £330,000 to the two boat crews for three years.

  4. 4.

    The Boat Race is not one of the so-called ‘Crown Jewels’ of listed sporting events which must be broadcast on free-to-air television. In 2004, organisers sold television rights to ITV after decades of the race being shown on the BBC, although BBC resumed coverage 2010 April. In 2015, BNY Mellon (men’s) Boat Race and the Newton Women’s Boat Race took place on the same afternoon over the same course.

  5. 5.

    In a speech to the American Bar Association, 15th July. See http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106096 (Access 14th July 2015).

  6. 6.

    This is not the place to consider whether rowing is elitist, but clearly, there is a widespread perception that it is, along with polo and golf. The public’s perception of rowing was not helped when the 2012 Olympic rowing events were held at Eton Dorney, a private boat lake owned by one of Britain’s most exclusive private schools. The composition of the Boat Race crews, between 1829 and 1992, contained 16 oarsmen (out about some 1600) from a non-private/independent school (Wigglesworth 1992). Similarly, as to whether Oxbridge is symbol of elitism divides opinion. Despite various initiatives, Oxbridge remains elitist in terms of its over-representation of students drawn from elite, private schools in comparison to state schools (The Sutton Trust). This over-representation is carried forward in terms of Oxbridge alumni entering senior levels in the civil service, finance, the judiciary and mainstream politics.

  7. 7.

    Davison, a campaigner for women’s suffrage, died in a collision with the King’s horse during the Epsom Derby of 1913—see Carol Osborne’s chapter in this book.

  8. 8.

    The name of the organisation has been explained by Oldfield as a self-reflexive critique drawing on Magritte’s painting ‘This is not a pipe,’ and Foucault’s book of the same name. (See also Bauman’s 2012 text ‘This is not a diary’).

  9. 9.

    Plus ca change… After the Emily Davison incident, the King referred in his diary to ‘a most disappointing day’ whilst Queen Mary sent the jockey concerned a telegram wishing him well after his ‘sad accident caused through the abominable conduct of a brutal lunatic woman.’

  10. 10.

    One footnote to the typically reactionary coverage of the Daily Mail and the immediacy of social media was the online publication by the newspaper which linked Oldfield with one of the ‘bête noires’ of the paper, Abu Hamza. Maxfarquar (2012) identifies how the Daily Mail was the victim of a ‘sting’ when they published an online article that linked Trenton Oldfield to Abu Hamza. The origin of the information (i.e. their source) was the @TrentonOldfield twitter account, which turned out to be a spoof account. The original Daily Mail Online article was subsequently removed.

  11. 11.

    ‘Pussy Riot’ is the name of a Russian feminist punk rock collective, who staged a protest against President Putin in a Moscow cathedral in February 2012. Several members were subsequently imprisoned, with Putin claiming they had insulted the church.

  12. 12.

    In 1788 the British Empire English state began to use Australia as a penal colony. Transportation of English prisoners officially ended in 1868 but this narrative continues to feature in Anglo-Australian relations.

  13. 13.

    Oldfield had originally held a Tier One visa which is given to highly skilled migrants.

  14. 14.

    Although this form of protest is not entirely dead, as demonstrated by recent protest in southern Europe and North Africa the recent years.

  15. 15.

    A movement to occupy elite or privileged spaces, begun on Wall Street in New York in October 2011 and spreading to a number of other countries and cities, including London, by the following year.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Faculty, Leeds Beckett University, Beckett Park Campus, Leeds, LS6 3QU, UK

    Jon Dart

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  1. Jon Dart
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Jon Dart

  2. Carnegie Faculty, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Stephen Wagg

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Dart, J. (2016). ‘Messing About on the River.’ Trenton Oldfield and the Possibilities of Sports Protest. In: Dart, J., Wagg, S. (eds) Sport, Protest and Globalisation. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46492-7_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46492-7_13

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-46491-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-46492-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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