It is generally accepted that professional sportsmen came from the working class: indeed, in the light of the discussion in the previous chapter, this is virtually a tautological statement. Of their geographical origins there is less certainty. Most jockeys hailed from rural areas, perhaps a consequence of racing stables being located in the countryside; some aspirants had urban backgrounds, but too often their small stature owed more to nurture than to nature and a few months of fresh air and good food soon ruined their chances of a career in the saddle. Country towns and villages remained the dominant source for county cricketers, though increasingly the flow was from the north and the Midlands rather than from the southern counties. Inadequate playing facilities in the cities may have restricted the emergence of cricketers, but soccer players could develop their ball skills in the back streets and thus many of them may have come from urban areas: more will be known when Osborne completes his computerised study of Football League and Southern League players. What Table 13.1 shows is that the north of England and Scotland were the main recruiting areas of the English Football League, but that southerners did make more of a contribution to the Southern League. Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that this inferred local recruitment: Table 13.2 makes it clear that the majority of players came from outside the region in which they played.