Editing Harold Pinter (section)

===Sport and friendship===
Pinter enjoyed running and broke the Hackney Downs School sprinting record.<ref>Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 28–29.</ref><ref name=Bakerchap1>Baker, "Growing Up", chap. 1 of ''Harold Pinter'' 2–23.</ref>
He was a [[cricket]] enthusiast, taking his bat with him when evacuated during the Blitz.<ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 7–9 and 410.</ref> In 1971, he told [[Mel Gussow]]: "one of my main obsessions in life is the game of cricket—I play and watch and read about it all the time."<ref>Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 25.</ref> He was chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club, a supporter of [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire Cricket Club]],<ref>Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 8.</ref> and devoted a section of his official website to the sport.<ref name=Gaieties>{{cite web |url=http://www.haroldpinter.org/cricket/index.shtml |title=Cricket |editor=Batty, Mark |work=haroldpinter.org |access-date=5 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613203308/http://www.haroldpinter.org/cricket/index.shtml |archive-date=13 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> One wall of his study was dominated by a portrait of himself as a young man playing cricket, which was described by [[Sarah Lyall]], writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'': "The painted Mr. Pinter, poised to swing his bat, has a wicked glint in his eye; testosterone all but flies off the canvas."<ref name=Lyall>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/movies/07lyal.html |title=Harold Pinter – Sleuth |first=Sarah |last=Lyall |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 October 2007 |location=New York City |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104055337/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/movies/07lyal.html |archive-date=4 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Sherwin>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/article5963091.ece |title=Portrait of Harold Pinter playing cricket to be sold at auction |first=Adam |last=Sherwin |work=[[TimesOnline]] |date=24 March 2009 |publisher=[[News Intl]] |location=London |issn=0140-0460 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616211500/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/article5963091.ece |archive-date=16 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  Pinter approved of the "urban and exacting idea of cricket as a bold theatre of aggression."<ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 410.</ref>  After his death, several of his school contemporaries recalled his achievements in sports, especially cricket and running.<ref>Supple, T. Baker, and Watkins, in Watkins, ed.<!--For bibliographical details, if needed, see [[Harold Pinter Bibliography]].--></ref>  The [[BBC Radio 4]] memorial tribute included an essay on Pinter and cricket.<ref name=Burtoncricket>{{cite web |url=http://www.lordstaverners.org/news.cfm?fullID=70 |title=Latest News & Charity Fundraising News from The Lord's Taverners |first=Harry |last=Burton |work=[[Lord's Taverners]] |year=2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627142610/http://www.lordstaverners.org/news.cfm?fullID=70 |archive-date=27 June 2009 |access-date=26 June 2011}}</ref>

Other interests that Pinter mentioned to interviewers are family, love and sex, drinking, writing, and reading.<ref name=GussowBillMerr>See, e.g., Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 25–30; Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 7–16; and Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 194.</ref> According to Billington, "If the notion of male loyalty, competitive rivalry and fear of betrayal forms a constant thread in Pinter's work from ''The Dwarfs'' onwards, its origins can be found in his teenage Hackney years. Pinter adores women, enjoys flirting with them, and worships their resilience and strength. But, in his early work especially, they are often seen as disruptive influences on some pure and [[Platonic love|Platonic]] ideal of male friendship: one of the most crucial of all Pinter's lost [[Garden of Eden|Edens]]."<ref name=Woolf1/><ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 10–12.</ref>