Sport in Middle-Earth

[Ardamir the Blessed]

The Saucepan Man posted:

although I seem to recall (perhaps from his Letters) that Tolkien himself was not overly fond of the game [cricket].

You are correct:

Letter #183:

About as amusing to us (or to me) as are stories about cricket, or yarns about a touring team, to those who (like me) find cricket (as it now is) a ridiculous bore.

Letter #199:

I was as happy or the reverse at school as anywhere else, the faults being my own. I ended up anyway as a perfectly respectable and tolerably successful senior. I did not dislike games. They were not compulsory, fortunately, as I have always found cricket a bore: chiefly, though, because I was not good at it. ....

Lalaith posted:

I can't place the quote now, but either in the Hobbit or the LotR there is a reference to young hobbits throwing stones at small animals, apparently as a hobby....

The Prologue:

They [Hobbits] shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.