Epic of the Prize Ring

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 162, 28 June 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

Epic of the Prize Ring

Anniversary of Farnborough Battle

Tom Sayers v. Camel Heenan

QN April 17, 1860, seventy years ago to-day, was fought a battle with bare fists which created an intensity of excitement unparalleld in the liistory of sport (writes H. E Cleveland in London “Sporting Life”). 1 refer to the memorable gladiotorlal combat between Tom Sayers, of Brighton, English champion, and John Camel Heenan, “the Benicia Bov,” who was acclaimed premier pugilist of the United States of America, although strange to relate, he never won a prize ring battle. Still, the event is cherished in the memorie s of Britons and Yankees as the greatest exhibition of courage and skill and endurance which the prize ring has ever witnessed. Aroifnd the ring, pitched in a field about half a mile from Farnboro ugh Station, in Hampshire, were gathered some fifteen hundred persons of ail sort and conditions in life.

ALL WALKS OF LIFE. There were dukes, lords, marquises, clergymen, actors, singers, authors, journalists, painters and poets mixed with plain country gentlemen, military and naval officers, legislators, lawyers, barristers, merchants, cardsharpers, thimble-ringers, fathers of families who brought their sons, pickpockets. fighting men of all weights, racehorse trainers, horse-dealers, jockeys doctors, publicans, etc. Scarcley an art, a profession, trade or a class was unrepresented. A number of active visitors swarmed up the slender trees which then surrounded the meadow, whence they looked down upon the ring. There was one timid old gentleman present who, rather than stay away, had hired two professional pugilists to protect him. There were men and women selling oranges, and Harry Savage, the purveyor to the Prize Ring, and Joe Aaron, a son of the once famous ‘‘Star of the East,” disposing of cooked chickens, sandwiches, fried fish, and other edibles at a huge profit. Pickpockets were busy early, and occasionally small groups of spectators would gather round hastilyformed rings in which couples settled their differences of opinion in the then popular manner. After relating how he journeyed down in the special train from London Bridge, Charles Dickens, who saw the light, described the men. “When the immortal Sayers stepped into the ring at seven o’clock in the morning” wrote the famous novelist, “he was received like a popular performer, with a round of applause.

"His immortal face was a deep sallow brown, and looked like a square block of walnut wood. His expression was a little more marked for pugilism than that of most of his craft. He was slightly nervous on facing the company. “His opponent, Heenan, next entered the, ring, to be received with quite as much enthusiasm as the English champion. Ho looked much fairer than Sayers in the face, and was equally nervous. His portraits had flattered him in the eyes of the British public. “There are two styles of nose which all prize-fighters must he content to select from, one presenting a flat, triangular appearance, the other indented near the tip and slightly turned up, so that you could hang a key on it. The immortal Heenan had a moderate nose of the last pattern.” ROPES NOT CUT. The fight, which began at twentyfour minutes past seven, was over at a quarter to ten. Then the ring was broken during the thirty-seventh round. Heenan, who was fast becomblind, hugged Sayers on the ropes, which were lowered by Toni’s friends, but were not cut, as stated by several people who were there. The referee was shut out from a view of the subsequent proceedings owing to tho excited crowd invading the fighting space. The chief official ordered a cessation of hostilities, but five rounds were thereafter fought. Heenan's sight was now so defective that, in the fourth of these, the forty-first, the American rushed from his corner while Sayers was on his seconds' knee, and, letting fly at •Jemmy Welsh, knocked him over, and kicked at Harry Brunton. He then hugged Sayers, and they both fell. A cry was raised that the referee had declared the fight over, whereon Heenan rushed from the ring with great activit.y but had hardly gone a hundred yards before he went temporarily blind from the punishment he had received. Sayers stayed in the ring for a while, with his sight good and in all respects, but bis injured dexter arm —of little use since the fourth round —able, as he stated, “to tight another hour. '

1 he battle was afterwards declared a drawn one. TREES FELLED. During the seventy years that have elapsed since the event, the scene of the “mill” has undergone much alteration. , Most of the trees shown tn Jem Ward’s celebrated painting in oils, and Newbold’s picture of the battle, have been felled, and other features obliterated. Some years ago a considerable sum of money was subscribed for the purpose of erecting a monument or lasting landmark on the spot, but the objections of the late ex-Empress Eugenie, who owned the land, could not be broken down. This was much to the regret of many influential Englishmen, who were desirous, not only of preserving but definitely marking, the spot on which Sayers gave as great a display of pluck against enormous odds, notwithstanding his fractured arm, as any pugilist before his time or afterwards. It was hoped to purchase the field and enclose with an iron railing the exact spot' on which the famous “square of hemp and timber” was pitched. On the place where the “scratch” was marked an obelisk or other monolith was to be fixed. The scheme was never altogether dropped, and may even after this lapse of time, be revived. There can be no disputing the fact that, following the retirement of Tom Sayers, after his fight with Heenan, public sympathy with the P.R. and its professors practically died out.