Related to National Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Description:

Conveys Guttmann's recollections of the beginnings of competitive sport at Stoke Mandeville:

 

'We started modestly and cautiously with darts, snooker, punch-ball and skittles, and these games very soon proved invaluable in arousng interest in sport. However, the idea of competetive, organized team sport was born on an afternoon in 1944, when I tried to move about in a travaux chair, and at the same time, using the curved handle of a walking stick as a mallet, to hit a ball and chase after it... it taught me that wheel-chair polo, as I had already termed it in my mind, was possible as a competetive team sport for paraplegics, and... [that] it is extremely difficult for the able-bodied person to keep his feet still n the tray of the wheel-chair whilst taking part in such an active sport.' (7-8)

 

'The results obtained with wheel-chair polo... were so encouraging, that very soon I introduced wheel-chair basket-ball, which proved even more successful, inasmuch as it was suitable for our ladies, some of whom... even outmatched the toughest men.' (11)

 

'archery... is of immense value in strengthening, in a very natural way, just those muscles of the upper limbs, shoulders, and trunk, on which a paraplegic's well-balanced, upright position depends. Therefore, it can even be used for the prevention and treatment of deformities of the spine, such as scoliosis following spinal injury, as well as certain cases of infantile paralysis.' (11)

 

'above all, it [archery] is a sport in which a paraplegic can be trained to shoot at certain, officially-recognised distances - say, a Colombia or Western Round - with the same degree of accuracy from his wheel-chair as can the able-bodied archer...This means that the paraplegic's disability is no longer a handicap in joining an archery clubin his own town after discharge from hospital and competing in matches on exactly the same terms as those of any other member of his club.' (12)

 

'In 1951, at the invitation of the organizers of the Festival of Britain, demonstrations in archery and basket ball were given on two occasions by mixed teams of sportsmen from Stoke, the Duchess of Gloucester House, Star and Garter, and Lyme Green, before hundreds of spectators' (15)

 

'Our first Inter-Spinal Unit Sports Day coincided with the opening of the Olympic Games in London on 29th July, 1948. It was an experiment as a public performance but also a demonstration to society that sport should not be confined to able-bodied people. Although... only two units... took part... it was a full success, and it may be recorded that the reporter from The Times, in an article written on 30th July, 1949, emphasised the amazement of the spectators over the accuracy of the shooting.' (15)

 

'Although we have always welcomed among our competitors our Polish friends from Wrexham, and last year we had one French patient from the Star and Garter Home, it was on the 26th July this year that I saw the first great step forward to my dream realised, when a team of war veteran archers from the Netherlands finally put the Stoke Mandeville Games on an international basis.' (16)