ODD WAGERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

ODD WAGERS.

THE LONGEST GAME OF GOLF.

BEES VERSUS PIGEONS

CRICKET ON HORSEBACK

Having an idle week, and being filled with an overflowing passion for golf, three American vaudeville artists who were performing in England decided to walk from Birmingham to Hull, playing the royal and ancient game over the whole of this long course. The wager was that the winner should take the whole week's salary of the other two.

They were not to use more than two clubs, a driver and a mashie, and were not to change clothing or shave! One of the competitors dropped out after covering a third of the course, but the other two pressed on, and reached Hull on the Saturday afternoon, having been six days seven and a half hours in covering 175 miles. Thousands of strokes were made £tnd scores of balls lost. The feet of" the players were badly swollen, and they had had to cut their boots. Two to One on the Bees. A few years ago a beekeeper and a neighbouring pigeon fancier had a controversy as to the relative flying speed of the bird and £he insect. The keekeeper was of opinion that bees could easily outfly homing pigeons over a short course, and he laid two to one on his bees. Both the fanciers were hardheaded Yorkshiremen, and such conditions were arranged that there should be no subsequent argument as to the result. The rules were these: The bees to be slightly dusted with fine flour, so that they might be identified on arrival at the hive. The bees, twelve in number to be released three miles from their hive. The same number of pigeons at the same distance from their cote. The first six to arrive home to be the winners. The bees won easily. The first bee was home half a minute before the first bird, and three more bees rcached their hive before the second pigeon. Thus perhaps the phrase "to make a beeline for home " may be justified. The Cleverest Dog. In " Coke of Norfolk " Mrs. A. M. W. Stirling relates that " Sir John Sebright" —a prominent society figure of the early nineteenth century —'f often brought a favourite dog to Holkham, which was remarkably clever at learning tricks. Lord Erskine also possessed a dog which he declared the cleverer of the two. A wager was laid as to which animal, in the course of a twelvemonth, could be taught the most extraordinary trick.

" The trial took place at Holkham at the end of the year. Erskine's dog cleverly took a roast oyster out of the fire without injuring himself, but Sir John's dog actually carried a glass of wine, without spilling a drop, to any gentleman in tho room pointed out to him "!

One of tho most eccentric wagers on record was made by Horace Walpole's brother, Lord Orford, who backed a drove of geese to race an equal number of turkeys from Norwich to London. In those days, it may bo observed, most of London's meat and poultry walked to market. Lord Orford won his bet, for the geese kept to the road all the time. The turkeys, on the contrary, when darkness came on, flew to roost in the roadside trees, from which their drivers had a hard task to dislodge them. The turkeys, therefore, despite their- brisker gait, were two days behind the geese. A Queer Conveyance. The famous Mr. Huddy, who was the postmaster at Lismore at the beginning of the last century, would back himself to do almost anything, if it were only eccentric enough. In January, 1821, when 97 years old', Huddy travelled for a wager from Lismore to Fermoy in a Dungarvon oyster tub drawn by a pig, a badger, two cats, a goose and a hedgehog. He wore on his head a large red nightcap, and carried a pig-drover's whip in one hand, and in the other a big cow's horn, which he blew to encourage his team and to give notice of the arrival of the Royal Mail!

In the past assorted races were popular. The early eighteenth century sportsman could stake what he willed on bull against cow or calf. At the Northampton Whitsun race meeting in 1724, for instance, two bulls, four cows, and a calf faced the starter for a race of five guineas value. They started, but did not finish. The calf—maybe through lack of training—fell down, and the cows threw their riders. The result then rested with the two bulls, and one of them was shouted "home" by the cheering thousands.

St. James' Park was in the eighteenth century the scene of some curious wagers. Mr. Austin Dobson made .a hobby of preserving a list of these. "In 1720," lie writes, "there is a record' of a race between a black boy and a coffeehouse boy three times round the park for £100. In 1731 a butcher boy ran five times round the park for £40; and in 1740 a little girl of eighteen months was backed to walk the Mall in half an hour, and accomplished her task in 23 minutes to the great admiration of thousands." Nineteen Miles in an Hour. The Earl of March, better known by his later title of the Duke of Queensberry, and better still as "Old Q.," together with Lord Eglington, betted Count Taafe and' another that they would provide a four-wheeled carriage to carry a man and be drawn by four horses 19 miles in an hour—at that time an unheard-of feat of speed and endurance. The duke, as it is simpler to call him, took infinite trouble over his task, trying horse after horse and carriage after carriage. Wright, of Long Acre, was the happy man whose handiwork was finally accepted —a horse-breaker's brake without the usual high perch, having oil-cans fixed to the boxes of the wheels, and the pole and bars made of thin wood lapped with wire to strengthen them. The springs were of steel, and the harness of silk and whalebone, and the total weight some 2.Jcwt.

On August 29, 17i50, tlie carriage with its four chosen horses and postillions took the field at Newmarket before a prodigious concourse of spectators, among whom a course was cleared by a horseman in red velvet. In the result the duke's judgment was thoroughly vindicated, for the horses, fairly running away with their riders, actually covered the first four miles in nine minutes, and the total distance in 6 minutes and 33 seconds under the hour.

On the subject of curious cricket matches the "Kentish Gazette" for 1794 is worth quoting, for it announces a "singular game of cricket" to be played on May 6 in Linsted Park, between the Gentlemen of the Dale and the Gentlemen of the Hill for one guinea a man. The whole to be performed on horse-"" back. If the match were really played we can claim the invention of polo with extra difficulties!

And finally, to come down to more modern times again, M. Maurice Maeterlinck a few years ago, on the eve of visiting the U.S.A., made a wager with a friend of £100 that he would succeed in eluding all the reporters, who, with full knowledge of the bet, were acting together to prevent his landing without their knowledge. He not only succeeded, hut actually arrived in Boston incognito in time to attend the performance of his play, "Pelleas and Melieande," in which his wife was acting!—A. B. Cooper, in "John 0' London's Weekly."