page_title: Royal High School, Edinburgh
section_title: Sports and games
hierarchical_section_title: Royal High School, Edinburgh / Sports and games
caption_attribution_description: English: Holyrood Cricket Ground in the late nineteenth century.
context_page_description: The Royal High School of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primaries in the north-west of the city: Blackhall primary school, Clermiston primary school, Cramond and Davidson's Mains.
  The school's profile has given it a flagship role in education, piloting such experiments as the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education, the provision of setting in English and mathematics, and the curricular integration of European Studies and the International Baccalaureate. The Royal High School was last inspected by HMIE in April 2007.
  The rector is Pauline Walker who replaced Jane Frith, the first woman to head the school.
context_section_description: That Act of Council in 1851, which freed our Saturdays, should be held in high esteem by all our athletes, for it is the Magna Carta of our Cricket and Football Clubs. It rendered possible the formation of a cricket club in 1861, to be followed seven years later by a football club.
  The Royal High School had many sporting clubs which have mainly been disbanded. The RHS Cricket Club was formed in 1861. The RHS Rugby Football Club was formed in 1868. The RHS Golf Club was formed in 1876. The RHS Athletic Club was formed in 1920. The RHS Bike Club was formed in 2011. These clubs were pioneered by former and attending pupils, who originally played their games together. Among the student founders of cricket and football at the school were Taverner Knott and Nat Watt, who undertook their labours with the encouragement of Thomson Whyte, reportedly the first master to take a serious interest in sport at the school. The sporting clubs were formally integrated into the school body when, in 1900, at the request of the club captains, two masters undertook the management of cricket and rugby.
  The school's annual games date from the early 1860s, following Queen Victoria's grant of Holyrood Field to the school for use as a cricket field in 1860. At first the organisation of the games was undertaken by the masters, but at the request of the rector, Dr. James Donaldson, the burden was assumed by the cricket club, which carried it until the outbreak of the First World War.
  The nations system was introduced in 1912 by a later rector, Dr. William J. Watson. This has continued to the present day. On joining the school every pupil is allotted membership in one of four school houses, known as nations, named after the gentes or primordial peoples from the infancy of the Scottish state: Angles, Britons, Picts and Scots. Siblings are members of the same nation. The nations originally competed against each other in athletics, cricket and rugby, the champion nation being awarded the school shield for the annual session. This system has evolved over time to include other extracurricular interests, such as drama and music.
  Conceived as a character-building exercise, the annual games and nations system were intended to foster a team spirit and encourage physical activity among all pupils. Within each nation, masters were appointed to committees to develop Under 15 and Under 13 cricket and rugby teams, and to broaden participation beyond the First XI and XV by training pupils of every level of ability. The competitive scheme proved popular with pupils and teachers and has since been expanded to encompass a wide variety of games, sports and other extracurricular activities, held throughout the year. Nation badges were introduced in 1928.
  Today the nations compete for the Crichton Cup. This was first presented as a trophy for the inter-nation squadron swimming race in 1914 by J. D. Crichton, whose sons were at the school. In 1920 it was transferred to the nation championship in scholarship and athletics combined.
  Earlier generations of Royal High Scholars had played their own schoolyard game, known as clacken from the wooden bat used by players, and as late as the 1880s 'no High School boy considered his equipment complete unless the wooden clacken hung to his wrist as he went and came', but the rise of national games, especially rugby, the grant of Holyrood Field for cricket in 1860, and the construction of a gymnasium and swimming bath in 1885, meant the ancient Royal High Schoolyard game was extinct by 1911.
caption: Holyrood Cricket Ground in the late 19th century.
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