A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (22 page)

At the termination of the game the score stood thus: The single-legs, first innings, 25; second innings, 46; total, 71. The one-arms, first innings, 50; second innings, 60; total, 110. The players dined between the innings at the Railway Tavern.

The Leicester Chronicle
, July 19, 1845

A Football as a Detective

Recently, at a match in the North of England, a curious incident happened. A player gave the ball so strong a kick that it went through the net of the opponents’ goal, and struck a spectator in the face. The injured man fell down, and was carried to the pavilion.

As he was recovering very slowly the doctor who attended him searched his pockets to find out his name and to enable him to inform the injured man’s friends.

Instead of the doctor finding out any name and address, however, he found over a dozen gold watches, one of which belonged to his daughter. Naturally his suspicions were aroused, and he communicated with the police.

When the man recovered he was marched off to the police-station, where it was discovered he was a well-known thief, who had successfully baffled the police for some time. But for the football’s blow he wouldn’t have been discovered.

The Leeds Times
, January 7, 1899

A Strange Adventure

A curious canoe adventure is reported from Frankfurt. Some members of the boat club in that city resolved to row to Mayence by night. They started at 12 o’clock, and pulled away vigorously all night, enjoying the pull exceedingly.

At sunrise it was discovered to their great chagrin that the anchor had not been weighed, and that they had remained at the same spot where they had taken leave of their friends, by whom they are now known as ‘the explorers.’

The Evening News
, Portsmouth, November 4, 1882

Extraordinary Termination to a Foot Race

Two athletes, named Radcliffe and McDowell, ran a race at Belfast on Saturday. The course was strange to them and they did not know that Price’s Dock intervened between the starting-point and winning-post.

Accordingly, when in the full heat of the race, they came to the dock, and, unable to stop, fell over into the water. They were rescued by the harbour police in an exhausted state.

Supplement to the Northampton Mercury
, February 13, 1886

Extraordinary Scene at a Football Match

At a football match, played at Worksop on Saturday, between Beighton and Worksop, the ball was kicked over the hedge into the garden adjoining the football field, and was promptly seized by the wife of the owner of the garden and locked up in an outhouse.

The players, being without a ball, were unable to proceed with the game – another ball having been seized by the same party just before the match commenced and taken to the police station.

One of the players and a spectator went to the proprietor of the garden and his wife and asked for the ball, which was refused, whereupon the two decided to help themselves and accordingly made for the door of the outhouse.

The proprietor of the garden picked up his garden fork and ran at one of them with it, but the latter seeing his danger caught the gardener by the neck, twisted him round, and took the fork from him.

Meanwhile the gardener’s wife had not been idle. She armed herself with the swill bucket and battered it about the head of the player who had ventured to seek the ball. This roused the ire of the spectators, who rushed in scores over the hedge into the garden, but seeing the player coming from the garden with the ball under his arm, they retired, otherwise the proprietors of the garden might have fared badly.

As it was, the spectators contented themselves by hooting at the two in the garden till the match terminated.

The Derby Daily Telegraph
, April 18, 1887

Extraordinary Cricket Craze.

The Game to be Prohibited

A cricket mania has broken out in the sunny isles of the Pacific. ‘Cricket,’ writes a colonial newspaper correspondent from Samoa, ‘which was introduced here a few years ago by some of the more energetic British residents, has now become a nuisance, owing to the manner in which it is played by the natives.

‘It is no uncommon thing to see a game being played in which the players number from 80 to 150 a side, and which lasts for ten days or a fortnight.

‘The natives have become so crazy over cricket that they neglect their food crops during the whole of the season, and the consequence is that during a great part of the year they are in a state of poverty.’

King Malietoa is now seriously considering the absolute prohibition of our national game within his dominions.

The Citizen
, Gloucester, June 16, 1890

Cricket Match on the Ice

Teams representing the respective cricket clubs of Saddington and Kibworth, two villages just outside Market Harborough, met in an extremely novel encounter on Saddington Reservoir, and an amusing cricket match on ice ended in a draw.

The match was played on skates, and the ice being in splendid condition the ‘leather hunting’ was very considerable and many ‘boundaries’ were scored.

Saddington went in first, and although their first man was dismissed by the first ball delivered the team was not disposed of till 205 (28 extras) had been compiled. Smith, a Kibworth bowler, took four wickets in one over. The first two Kibworth men scored 95 without being separated, but at this point of the game the match was declared drawn, owing to the failing light.

The Illustrated Police News
, January 14, 1893

Golfer Creates a Panic

One of the most remarkable golf matches on record took place in the streets of Pittsburgh on Saturday, says a New York correspondent.

Several members of the Alleghany Club wagered four thousand dollars that a golf ball could be driven over four miles and a half of the city streets in 150 strokes.

William Patten, a well-known player, was selected to make the test. The course was from the Alleghany Club to the Pittsburgh clubhouse. The first mile was the hardest to cover, fifty strokes being required.

Patten finally sent a ball through the bedroom window of a prominent citizen, and caused a great disturbance. Another went through the window of a tramway car, and created a panic among the passengers.

The entire four miles and a half were finally covered in 119 strokes. Patten finished by landing a ball through the window of the Pittsburgh clubhouse, and still had 31 strokes to spare. Three balls were lost, three clubs were broken, and about £100 worth of damage was done.

The Falkirk Herald and Midland Counties Journal
, July 28, 1900