During the Victorian age, sporting activity became recognised as an important constituent in the education of the sons of gentlemen, believed to foster characteristics that would serve them well in adult life when called upon to lead in business, the services or public life. Many Cobbolds and their kin attended schools where this ethos was cultivated and, in turn, passed their own passions for sport on to their sons and grandsons. Consequently, over the years, the family has produced a great number of gifted sportsmen and one or two talented sportswomen, such as that crack shot with a rifle, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (see Chapter 2).

There are gradations of sporting prowess: representing one's first eleven at cricket or fifteen at rugby is, for many, not only a great honour but perhaps the pinnacle of their sporting careers; while a Blue at Oxford or Cambridge certainly sorts out those who excel at a particular sport from those who are simply ‘handy’ at it. Through the generations, many members of the family have reached the first echelon of sporting success and a considerable number have gone on to play in Varsity matches, those intense contests between Oxford and Cambridge. However, the nature of elite sport dictates that very few get to make it at the highest levels of their sport and that fewer still become genuine legends of them.