Which sports do you associate as being posh?

Yes, in some specific areas rugby union isn't posh. Go and hang around outside 'Twickers' on a Six Nations afternoon though, and see what the majority of accents sound like.

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The_39th_Step@reddit

That’s self-selecting though. Twickenham tickets are expensive

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rybnickifull@reddit

Ah right, so I can't count the national stadium and arguable home of the entire sport. You should've said!

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The_39th_Step@reddit

Lords is the home of cricket and it’s a crazily different experience from the other cricket grounds around the country. One stadium does not a sport make

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Can I count the school I went to which banned football and only permitted rugby as a winter sport? Or the club I played for from age 10 to 17? Or are they outliers too? There must be a lot of rugby being done wrong!

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godtierjerker@reddit

So you're telling me there's a posh rugby and a not-posh rugby? I don't watch it so no idea about the massive differences. I just know these north West towns are not posh.

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Familiar-Bug2664@reddit

Its majority quite posh, but not exclusively.

I grew up playing club rugby in the south london/north Kent border, without blowing my own trumpet, we were fucking good. We were also, broadly, not that posh.

We got through to the national colts finals or something and ended up losing to a team from Liverpool, they were, also, broadly, not that posh.

But, realistically, its a fairly posh sport, its a shame tho, cos the lads from the council estates we had playing were mustard.

Courtney lawes, who is one of England's greatest ever players does not come from an upper class background at all

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Guilty_Struggle_6089@reddit

Rugby Union players usually start playing while enrolled at public school.

Rugby League players usually start playing at a young age at clubs local To the area in mostly Yorkshire and Lancashire towns along the M62 Corridor

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theotherquantumjim@reddit

Absolutely. But the comment I replied to made no distinction other than to say rugby is posh in England, which isn’t necessarily true

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Used-Flamingo-4320@reddit

Yeah defiantly posh here. Private school sport.

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hairychris88@reddit

There are plenty of places in England where one code or the other is the traditional working-class sport too. Nothing posh about Camborne or Castleford but they're both real rugby towns.

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ot1smile@reddit

Happy to be corrected.

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AmarilloMike@reddit

Likewise Northampton

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zwifter11@reddit

Rugby is not posh along the M62 motorway

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OzzyinKernow@reddit

I use to play for the only rugby club in tower hamlets - now based in converted railway arches but initially in an ‘old island’ Isle of Dogs boozer. I now live in Cornwall and it’s the game of choice for most youngsters across the board.

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JennyW93@reddit

I’m was genuinely stunned when I moved out of Wales and first discovered some people think rugby is posh

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MissionLet7301@reddit

In England it depends on if it's Union or League too, at least up North.

Union is for the public school pretty lads, and League is for the rest of us.

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ot1smile@reddit

Yeah I should have specified. The comment I was replying to was referring to union and that’s all that’s played in wales.

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BrieflyVerbose@reddit

First I've heard of it being posh and I'm nearly 40!

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External-Piccolo-626@reddit

The English team is basically all public school boys.

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DownrightDrewski@reddit

Depends where in England, there's plenty of smaller Rugby clubs around. I played when I was younger.

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Cultural_Tank_6947@reddit

Sorry, cricket is not really posh any more.

Even rugby, especially if you include rugby league.

The rest, absolutely.

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Puzzled-Lunch-6558@reddit

Toboggan. (IYKYK)

Sailing - no kid is getting into sailing competitively if they're skint. Honestly, anything that requires a lot of kit/equipment.

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Wastedyouth86@reddit

Archery, horse riding and croquet

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Sufficient_Depth_195@reddit

Golf

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chewmypaws@reddit

Motorsport/formula racing

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Major-Credit-2442@reddit

Maybe to a high level, yeah. But I don’t agree at all in terms of people who enjoy watching it or taking part at a low level.

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AutisticElephant1999@reddit

fox hunting

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Chrykal@reddit

That's not a sport, it's a disgusting hobby.

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BeeCharacter1416@reddit

Lol

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PurpleOctopus6789@reddit

It's not only disgusting, it's cruelty at its finest

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Terrible_Tap_4385@reddit

You have no idea, towny

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Rude-Possibility4682@reddit

Agree,for posh twats.

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BeeCharacter1416@reddit

Polo and shooting

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ProfPMJ-123@reddit

I’d guess you’ve just never bothered to actually meet people who take part in the different sports.

My friends wife participates in equestrian. They’re rich, but she’s anything but posh. A chap in the village where I live is a jockey. He’s as working class as they come.

The cricket team I play for is made up almost entirely of farmers. Posh we are not. I don’t know what a “boys club mentality” is. The women’s team is as active as the men’s.

I’d guess the problem is you have a chip on your shoulder because some people have decided to do things that you don’t.

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Turbulent_Pace_2388@reddit

You live in the dales? Jammy bastard! I live about one mile from the m25 🤣

Derbyshire or Yorkshire?

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ProfPMJ-123@reddit

Yorkshire. Wensleydale.

There’s nobody posh plays cricket here. It’s a farmhands game.

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rybnickifull@reddit

Farmers and poshness are by no means mutually exclusive.

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ProfPMJ-123@reddit

You’ve never met any farmers either, have you?

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rybnickifull@reddit

Lived a decent chunk of my life in West Berkshire, surrounded by the constant smell of pig shit. I've met a few, thanks for asking.

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DameKumquat@reddit

There are posh landowning ones. And the others.

The Tenant Farmers Association and the NFU don't always agree.

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WanderWomble@reddit

I'm very much not posh or rich. My horse cost £500 out of racing nearly 20 years ago. He lives on my friend's farm

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Terrible_Tap_4385@reddit

A one off payment. What a bargain. No feed or bedding, equipment nor vets bills required. You’re right, very good value……

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PurpleOctopus6789@reddit

A lot of sports on local levels attract people from all walks of life and often allow people to use equipment for free or a small fee. It's the competitive levels that tend to get expensive and attract certain type of people (not necessarily posh but with specific traits that often lead to better quality of life). Donna who works shifts in a local Tesco can hardly afford to travel to a two day tournament twice a month; not to mention free time that not everyone has. But she can still attend training sessions once a week.

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ShiteCrack@reddit

Darlington District League?

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ProfPMJ-123@reddit

Wensleydale.

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whucares000@reddit

Basically anything with white t shirts

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Turbulent_Pace_2388@reddit

Port vale 🤪

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usernameinmail@reddit

The England football team?

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split-tennisball@reddit

Spurs is posh

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MrboboCatman@reddit

Elephant polo.

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DameKumquat@reddit

Real Tennis. And Fives.

So niche they barely exist outside certain boys' public schools and associated Oxbridge colleges.

Polo.

Horse racing if you're the owner of some of the horses.

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DreadLifter@reddit

I thought the"Fives" was sarcasm as that's what we always called five-a-side football!

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glittermaniac@reddit

Fives is posh, but Raquets is more posh. Only 13 schools in the country play it (and it isn’t a stretch to work out which ones they are!).

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DameKumquat@reddit

Apparently there are 28 rackets courts and 28 real tennis courts in the UK. I'm not 100% sure Wikipedia knows the difference.

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LittleSadRufus@reddit

My takeaway from this thread is no one thinks croquet is posh

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DameKumquat@reddit

It's only posh if you measure up a pitch and follow the proper rules, which are vicious. Just sticking some hoops in a circle - not posh.

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thehappyonionpeel@reddit

Horses

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Numerous-Paint4123@reddit

Horses are either the roughest people women in the world or super posh. Absolutely nothing inbetween.

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OldTomToad@reddit

Horses is a funny one. Same as having loads of kids. Either very posh, or very not

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deanomatronix@reddit

Horsey stuff

Rugby union

Cricket (outside of the north)

Rowing/sailing

Shooting

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Active_Doubt_2393@reddit

Tennis.

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NrthnLd75@reddit

Rugby League isn't posh.
Cricket is both posh and not posh depending on where it's played.
Golf crosses all class boundaries these days.

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bahumat42@reddit

Polo

Lacrosse

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PolgaraEsme@reddit

We did lacrosse for one term at my comprehensive school.
One broken nose later, and that was quietly shelved.

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Dimac99@reddit

We did hockey, well, the girls did. Is lacrosse really that much more dangerous? I never even got round to buying shin pads.

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carlovski99@reddit

Lots of broken fingers too.

We had an American coach going round local schools teaching it for a few weeks at each. We though he was super cool, and a few of the lads got really into it and went on to play at a fairly decent standard.

Other than that though, its only ever been really posh girls I 've known who have played it.

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bisectional@reddit

Lacrosse has its roots in a native American sport of war where violence is part of the game.

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Dimac99@reddit

I had a wee wiki and it seems it's full contact in the men's game and non contact in the women's game. No jolly lacrosse sticks for the boys then, sounds a bit terrifying.

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PolgaraEsme@reddit

From what I remember, very like hockey, except the ball is being flung around at head height. Hence the broken nose. I remember learning to cradle the ball as you run so it doesn’t bounce out of the little net on the stick.

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Demostravius4@reddit

Anything on a horse, snow, or a boat.

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chestyCough94@reddit

Golf Tennis Horse riding Fencing

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Ill-Yogurtcloset1515@reddit

Golf is very lower middle class, nouveau rich sport in the UK.

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PurpleOctopus6789@reddit

fencing is hardly posh. It's got a reputation for being posh but it attracts people from all walks of life. most clubs will allow you to use their equipment for free. It can be very cheap if you just do it locally. Things get a lot more pricey if you want to compete but most people don't and local clubs offer very affordable classes. Doing it once a week will cost you less than £50 a month unless you're in a very competitive club (which there are very few of in the UK).

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RCMW181@reddit

I did 10 years as a fencing coach. It's a real mix.

High level tournaments are not cheap with gear, and everyone competing regularly needed a bit of money.

It's also the case the expensive private schools have regular clubs, where as it's are to see in state schools. A lot of the places I work had "Royal" in the name.

Got sponsorship to cover my costs.

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baldeagle1991@reddit

Tbh that could apply to virtually any sport listed here. Even many equestrian clubs provide mounts and equipment for those that can't afford them.

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oscarx-ray@reddit

Dressage. Although "sport" is a push.

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Terrible_Tap_4385@reddit

Do you understand the body strength and control required to get a horse to perform dresssge? You utter simpleton

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oscarx-ray@reddit

Obviously not, I'm a simpleton and I'm not posh! (The "not a sport" part was facetious, sorry, but I stand by it being posh)

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Terrible_Tap_4385@reddit

Can be posh, at elite levels, like all sports. Most local riding stables are not rich by any means and the kids taking part are not posh also.

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Siggi_Starduust@reddit

Cricket’s not posh. Never mind it being the number one sport among over a billion people on the Indian subcontinent, some of its most noted players include Shane Warne, Freddy Flintoff and David Boon.

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CommercialAd2154@reddit

In this country, it absolutely is posh, and I say that as a big fan of the sport!

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Aggravating_Panda783@reddit

Rowing

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Dennyisthepisslord@reddit

Went to one of the few state schools with a rowing club

It's posh.

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JLinCVille@reddit

Wall game.

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naynaeve@reddit

Formula one

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Truewit_@reddit

Polo.

Also Water Polo. tbh all swimming.

Track cycling.

Hockey.

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lildogeggs@reddit

All swimming 😂

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fork_the_rich@reddit

It kinda is in the uk, no? Swimming inner city is tough!

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Rekyht@reddit

I’d argue it’s considerably easier than if you’re in the middle or the country side

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fork_the_rich@reddit

Less and less so. Not trying to argue city over sticks.. I’ve lived in both.. just saying if you’re not a kid on swimming lessons it is quite hard to swim. Community pools always rammed and gym ones are spenny

Bring back the pools for the working classes 😅

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Truewit_@reddit

Yeah like I don’t think anyone who didn’t go to a school with a pool ends up competing in actual competitive swimming right? If the school didn’t have a pool then your parents could pay for you to go to the club at the school that did. Same as all the pos sports.

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SpudFire@reddit

But that doesn't make it a posh sport though, there are plenty of state comprehensive schools that do have a pool. All the secondary schools in my hometown do so swimming is very accessible to work class kids.

Boxing is only accessible to kids whose parents pay for them to go to a club yet that's one of the most working class sports going.

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Truewit_@reddit

I don't think I've ever seen a state school with a pool. We barely had a sports hall and used the nearby park for football.

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No-Photograph3463@reddit

We had a pool. It was tiny, probably between 10-25% of Olympic size one at most. It was also always broken at when it wasn't broken it was freezing, we had to stop one lesson as someone's lips starting turning blue because of how cold it was...

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lildogeggs@reddit

State comprehensive that was on same grounds as a leisure centre so we used their pool - everyone swam, poor area

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DTH2001@reddit

I know a few people who swim with the club at my local leisure centre. All of them go to decidedly unposh schools with nary a pool between them.

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Truewit_@reddit

Should I have put an asterisk on anyone* so as to indicate I was using the term generalistically?

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Illustrious-Log-3142@reddit

Women's Lacrosse

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therealhairykrishna@reddit

My wife played Lacrosse for Wales. Basically everyone on the national team went to Winchester with her.

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Illustrious-Log-3142@reddit

Assume you mean St Swithuns rather than Winchester college? If so that's literally where I went and was thinking about haha, incredible. They always did have successful lax players!

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therealhairykrishna@reddit

I do, yes. Hilarious!

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zwifter11@reddit

Rugby is not posh in Warrington, Wigan, St Helens, Leigh, Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds, York, Castleford, Wakefield, both sides of Hull, Toulouse and Catalonia

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mainukfeed@reddit

All winter sport, winter Olympics.

Like how the fuck does two dudes laying on top of each other on slay down some snowy hill become a sport? How do you fund that?

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fluidaffiliation@reddit

Any winter sport!

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bisectional@reddit

Any low paid professional sport is posh. Badminton in the garden? Not posh. Badminton for the county? Posh.

Cricket with a few mates, a bat ball and a wicket. Not posh. Professional 20-20 er playing for East Sussex? Posh.

Sailing lessons on the Channel or a lake for your 14 year old ? Not posh. Professional sponsored racing shipman on a catamaran with a chap named Giles? Posh

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Jacks_Journey@reddit

Croquet

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NaaNaaRitRit@reddit

Soggy Biscuit.

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Sad_Pie_3862@reddit

Fives, Eton rather than Rugby of course.

The Eton wall game.

Real tennis.

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thegskingII@reddit

Y'all know the one with the balls on the grass, dat one

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Mapleess@reddit

Lawn bowing.

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Xaavuza@reddit

Clay pigeon shooting

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therealhairykrishna@reddit

That's probably the least posh of the shooting sports though.

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gr33nday4ever@reddit

horses and literally anything involving snow or ice

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Familiar-Woodpecker5@reddit

Polo

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ArcadeCrossfire@reddit

Horse stuff

Racket stuff

Bat stuff

Snow stuff

Wet stuff

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theotherquantumjim@reddit

By wet stuff do you mean dogging?

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ZoltanGertrude@reddit

Pheasant shooting

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perhapsflorence@reddit

Any and all winter sports.

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aldog90@reddit

Lacrosse

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4321zxcvb@reddit

It would be interesting to think of which are posh as the cost to participate makes them exclusive, like horses, sailing or skiing and which are posh culturally, like tennis or rugby.

I think the culturally posh tend towards middle class rather than rich posh.

Culturally posh for me:

Rugby, Tennis, Cricket, Golf (bit borderline as is expensive to join club so might fall into financially exclusive category) Fencing.

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jaBroniest@reddit

Dressage! Those horse girls are high maintenance

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Smudge3108@reddit

Having been involved in club cricket for the last 20 years, I can guarantee you that the vast majority of it is not posh lol

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PurpleOctopus6789@reddit

Real tennis or royal tennis, whatever you want to call it. There are less than 50 courts in the world. Posh AF

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vientianna@reddit

Played a lot of sports in my time. Of those it would be lacrosse. In hockey there were plenty of people from privileged backgrounds but they tended to keep quiet about it. In lacrosse they openly boasted about it

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Spottyjamie@reddit

Pretty much all of them are posh to me

Footer, rugger, chucka etc

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Own_Glove845@reddit

Rowing for one

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KingKhram@reddit

Fencing

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TomL79@reddit

Rugby Union, Polo, Equestrian

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clumsyIam@reddit

In my local area lacrosse, tennis & sailing. Not a sport but this independent over priced Gym that only posh people would attend. Fair to say I participate in none. Too scummy for all that malarkey

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DoubleSpudd@reddit

Well let me know if you're ever feeling athletic and we can chug a litre of White Lightning and wrestle outside the Jobcentre.

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ODFoxtrotOscar@reddit

I’m trying to work out which parts, if any, of that are euphemisms

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DoubleSpudd@reddit

How dare you degrade the ancient art of White Lightning Wrestling.

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lumixjourney@reddit

it's got to be darts

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Worried_Suit4820@reddit

Polo Sailing Equestrian events

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ODFoxtrotOscar@reddit

Lacrosse

Fives

Three day eventing

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TheRealPyroManiac@reddit

Cricket

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MelodicAd2213@reddit

Definitely Polo - must be the poshest sport. Showjumping, dressage, skiing and lacrosse

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Notagelding@reddit

I was invited to watch polo once and let me tell you, everyone there was posh. Felt well out of my depth!

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havesomelove@reddit

Can’t tell if no one’s said croquet because they don’t think it’s posh or they don’t think it’s a sport but either way it’s the second on my list

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Chrykal@reddit

Polo was the first thing that came to mind.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

Any you sit down for - rowing, sailing, polo, dressage, show-jumping. The cost of the equipment is one of the main issues for people breaking into them. Though top riders often are subsidised and lessons can be variable in cost. Owning a horse though is converting money into poop and vet bills and top-tier horses sell for price of a house. But if got land, a stable and a pony, then you can have a lot of fun at low level shows without much wealth.

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BertieBus@reddit

Horse polo

Shooting sports

Rowing.

Lacrosse

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DTH2001@reddit

Yacht racing, polo, rowing

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