1880-1881 ANECDOTES

1880 -1881 ANECDOTES

1880 –1881 …

Keene’s Bath Journal 30^th October 1880: “Football is now in full swing. One or two matches have already been played, notably the inter-collegiate contest on Saturday, when Bath* beat Somerset* after a well fought game. The best play I have yet seen this season was displayed by the Bristol Medical Team when they met Somerset the other day and literally ‘ran over’ them. The Bath Football Club have opened but in rather a small way as yet.

They have not occupied their field which is one of the Lambridge Meadows but will do so very shortly. They have a good list of fixtures and will require to get quite good as a team as they mustered last year to pull off several of the matches. The Wells match on Saturday next is likely to be a good one, as the visitors are, I believe, generally considered as strong as anything in the county.”                                                                          (*College)

OLDFIELD WALK-OFF!

On the same day, there was a match between Oldfield Park and Weston School, which resulted in a victory for O.P.F.C. by one goal to a try and one touchdown. “About 10 minutes before time the home team claimed a goal, which the visitors disputed, and as the dispute could not be settled to the visitors’ satisfaction, the captain of the Oldfield Park F.C. withdrew his men and left the field.”

1/1/1881 Fancy Dress Match

The annual event took place on the Bath Football Club ground (Lambridge) on New Years Day after being postponed from the preceding Monday owing to unfavourable weather. Saturday was not all that could be desired, the ground being very wet and slight rain falling at the commencement notwithstanding all this there were over four-hundred people on the ground, a great number of them being ladies thus showing unmistakably that the efforts of BFC are appreciated. The Rhine String Band was present and played a selection of music. At 3-15 Mr. and Mrs. Caudle were deputed to pick sides. Just then, the Clown (C. Everett) and Harlequin (C Nash) drove on to the ground in a donkey tandem. The ball was started by Mrs. Caudle (W F Ommaney) it being quickly returned by Polly (W Williams) and Chawles (Edwards) getting hold of it made a good run but was safely held by a Zouave (G B Hodson). After some quick play Mr. Caudle (C F Luckman) obtained a try, a goal resulting. Soon after another try was gained by ****** Minstrel (A Williams) but the kick failed. About five minutes before half-time another goal was kicked for Mr. Caudle’s side from a try gained by a Guard (E Sants).

On half-time being called Mrs. Caudle’s side rallied and aided by some fine runs by an Executioner (C Daubeny), Mephistopheles (L A O’Donoghue) soon after kicked a goal, this however proved only an effort, for a Sprite (W Sants) presently gained a try and a goal was kicked. Another try was obtained by Mainwaring, but the kick failed; soon after this darkness put an end to the enjoyable game. For Mr Caudle’s side, besides those mentioned above, Hodson and C Williams made some good runs while for Mrs Caudle’s, Stuart, McLorg, Fosberry and Daubeny tried hard to avert defeat. Victory rested with Mr Caudle’s side by three goals and two tries to one goal. The following were the sides:-

GREAT SNOWSTORMS WERE REPORTED IN JANUARY 1881.

One interested in the Bath Club” writes: “The Bath passing is talked so much of by visiting teams, but I think there is still room for improvement, and if Bath men will only bear in mind and remember that it is the duty of a forward to throw the ball to the backs, whenever they get the chance, I see no reason why they should not carry everything before them.” (our underlining)

THE RUGBY RULES

“In Rugby Union football something is always happening, even in a second-rate match, to rivet the attention of the spectator. Now that the endless scrimmages of the old days have been put an end to by the legislation of the Rugby Union, the game is fast and its phases varying. The liberty of using the hand, denied to Association players, breaks the monotony of the unvaried kicking with the feet; it renders possible the “drop kick” certainly the most picturesque mode of kicking a football and makes “punting” of much greater frequency. Then there is the scrimmage, tight and loose, running with the ball, with its incidents of “handing off” and “collaring,” besides the “dribbling,” which is common to both styles of the game. The preference of the ordinary spectator for Rugby Union rules is shown conclusively if two matches, one under Rugby Union, the other under Association rules, are carried on simultaneously at no great distance from one another – a preference, however, which may be sufficiently accounted for by the innate desire of man to see his fellow-creature sent rolling in the mud by superior strength and skill. But the sharpest contrast between football played with the round ball and the same as played with the oval Rugby ball is also, in the eyes of outsiders, the most serious. However ignorant of modern football, all know that one game is   far “rougher” than the other; and a season seldom passes without a crusade being preached against what is called the “brutal” Rugby Union game. It is not so certain that the Rugby Union game, though the rougher, is the more productive of really serious accidents. People here assume that what they conceive ought to be the case is in fact the case. It would be futile, however, to dispute that two or three cases of broken bones occur every week. Considering the number of players, this number is not large; and the accidents consist, in three cases out of four, of broken collar-bones, which are, after all, preferable to dislodged knee-caps or sprained ankles. Unfortunately, the series of petty casualties is, though at rare intervals, broken by a fatal accident, such as that which lately happened at Middleton.

It may be conceded that outside opinion has some claim to exercise supervision over the different modes in which people choose to amuse themselves. But a “Dangerous Amusements” Act is out of the question. There is really no distinction of importance between the dangers of football and those of twenty other pastimes. People talk of the “brutality” of the game. The epithet seems to amount to this-that injuries at football are inflicted, as the old Roman lawyers used to say, corpore corpori, by human body upon human body. On the other hand, the element of spite or even intention to cause injury is conspicuously wanting. As the game is now played, these injuries are purely accidental as a stumble at a wire fence, being sucked down by an undertow, or receiving the charge of your own or your friend’s gun. In Tom Brown’s time at Rugby, we are not sure that the game was not more or less brutal. But the fact is that Rugby Union, the legislative body of this section of football playing, has shorn the game of one after another of its cruel characteristics. “Hacking,” “tripping,” and mauling in the field of play have, as the Committee of the Union pointed out to the coroner whopresided at the inquest on the occasion of the recent fatal accident at Middleton, disappeared altogether; and the greatest triumph of the milder code was when, only a few years ago, Rugby School itself abandoned its ancient traditions. If accidents seem now more numerous than of yore, it is because the players are more numerous, and because the game is faster-that is because it is stripped of that very ferocity which some impute to it. At any-rate, the rules of Rugby Union football have arrived at such a state that they can no longer be ameliorated in the direction of gentleness, without spoiling or perhaps killing the game. It this becomes a question whether, for every bone broken, there are not a hundred boys and men rendered sounder of wind, limb, and constitution, defter of hand and foot, quicker of eye and prompter of judgement; in fact, whether the game does not offer overwhelming compensations for the proportionately few casualties it occasions. “    – Times

In studying the text, one’s attention is distracted by an advertisement for –

1 DOZ. BOTTLES OF RED CATALAN – RICH FULL BODIED WINE, FROM KINLOCKS & CO. 20/- .

(Ah well, we can’t think Rugby all the time!)

25^th February 1882. The Bath Herald reported on FOOTBALL IN THE STREETS:

“John Prangely, 38, Corn Street, pleaded guilty to discharging a certain missile, to wit a football in the South Parade on the 20^th inst. Dismissed with a caution.”