THE NEWS OF 1811.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 349, 31 July 1930, Page 7

THE NEWS OF 1811.

ITEMS FROM OLD PAPER. Bare-knuckle Boxers. A copy of The Englishman or Sunday Express, dated 6th October; 1811, was recently found by a reader of the present Sunday Express, its greatgrandchild. It is a tattered publication, yellow a. with age and stained by time, and its four crumbling pages (6id) tell thrilling stories of: — The daring elopement of a certain captain, of the Blues with the lovely daughter of a knight. A cricket match between two teams of women, and 'A terrible battle between the bareknuckle boxers, Crib the Englishman and Jlolineux “ the Moor.” The fight took place on Saturday, Ist October, 1811, at Misselton Gap,, in the county of Rutland, eight miles from Grantham, and was attended by thousands of people, “ one-fourth of whom were the nobility and gentry from the surrounding country.” Crib won after eleven rounds had f been fought. Molineux was carried \ senseless and speechless from the ring, with his jaw fractured in two places. Crib received £4OO for his victory, and later drove through London in a “ barouche and four, with a gentleman amateur and Joe Ward, one of his seconds.” Molineux’s purse, if any, is not mentioned in the report, but in another part of The Englishman or Sunday Express the editor makes a biting comment, and a ponderous pun, on the 4|}spectacle of boxers riding in carriages. “ Our popular boxers,” he wrote, “ are now seen riding in barouches and other open carriages. This mode of exhibition certainly comes th.e nearest to cart, which, after all, would be the cheapeft and most appropriate.” A cricket match between two teams of women is evidently not a new idea, for such a contest between the sporting girls of Hampshire and Surrey y took place at Ball’s Pond, Newington, m 1811. It is described in the headline as a “ Cricket Match Extraordinary,” and was organised by “ two amateur noblemen ” of the respective counties for a five-hundred-guinea wager. " The performers in this singular contest,” says the report, “ were of all ages and sizes, from fourteen years' old to upward of forty, and the different parties were distinguished by coloured ribobns—royal purple for the Hampshire players and orange and blue for Surrey. “ The weather being favourable "on. Wednesday, some very excellent play and much skill were displayed; but the palm of the day was borne off by a Hampshire lass, who made a forty-one innings before she was thrown out.” It will never be known which of the amateur noblemen won his bet,

for the newspaper does not record Hampshire’s second innings or the result.

Captain —, of the Blues, eloped from Windsor with the daughter of Sir , it is recorded. In telling the romantic story with some relish, The Englishman or Sunday Express says:— “ From the effect the late elopement cf Lieutenant Groubb (Blues) with Miss Griffiths has produced, it may justly have said to have been, on the gentleman’s part, an example to his brother officers, and on the lady’s an appeal to the susceptibility of her own sex

“ Sufficient proof of this is furnished by Captain —, of the same regiment, who, probably thinking that valour ought to go hand in hand with beauty, went off last Sunday with a lovely girl, the daughter of Sir . This lady was on a visit at the house of Mr —, in Windsor Forest, and her lover, being at dinner there, proved his skill in military tactics by making a quick retreat with this fair fugitive from a large party. “ It is waggishly observed that it would be improper to send the Blues to Spain, as they are such a runaway regiment.”

Following this pretty story, with only the break of a paragraph, is the sad tale of Davies and Phillips, who suffered the sentence of being' flogged at the ..cart’s tail, in public, for keeping a little go, or private lottery, in Brompton Road.