Editing Gamesmanship (section)

==Alleged origins==
Potter cites the origin of gamesmanship to be a [[tennis]] match<ref name="vqr">[http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/ "The Timelessness of Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship" by Burling Lowrey. ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' Autumn 1993 pp.718–726] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907172010/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/ |date=2009-09-07 }}</ref> in which he and the philosopher [[C. E. M. Joad]] competed against two younger and fitter men who were outplaying them fairly comfortably. On returning a [[serve (tennis)|serve]], Joad hit the ball straight into the back-netting {{convert|12|ft|m}} behind the back-line. While the opponents were preparing for the next serve, Joad "called across the net in an even tone: 'Kindly say clearly, please, whether the ball was in or out.{{single double}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Stephen |first=Potter |title=The Theory & Practice of Gamesmanship |location=London |publisher=[[Rupert Hart-Davis]] |date=1947 |page=17}}</ref> Being young, polite university students, their opponents offered to replay the point, but Joad declined. Because they were young and polite, the slight suggestion by Joad that their etiquette and sportsmanship were in question was extremely off-putting, and distracted them for the rest of the contest. Potter and Joad went on to win the match.