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Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863Miles, Henry Downes

History

Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863

Name: Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863
Author: Miles, Henry Downes

Miles, Henry Downes

Boxing

Cribb and Spring being on a sparring tour, and making Bristol in their
route, a match for 100 guineas a-side was made between Neat and Spring,
and £50 a-side put down at the Greyhound Inn, Broadmead, Bristol. The
fight to take place on the 6th of October, 1819, half-way between
Bristol and London; but, in consequence of Neat’s breaking his arm while
in training, this match was off, not only to the chagrin of both the
combatants, but to the great disappointment of the sporting world.

Symptoms of a “screw being loose” between the Champion of England and
Neat, the following appeared in most of the London newspapers:—


                           “TO MR. T. CRIBB.

  “I observed in a report of the sparring match for the benefit of
  Harry Harmer, that you, being flushed by the juice of the grape,
  took an opportunity of paying me a compliment, which I did not
  expect you had liberality enough to do; namely, that ‘Neat was the
  best of the bad ones,’ and that ‘you would fight him for from £500
  to £1,000.’ In answer to which, I inform you that I will fight you
  as soon as you like (the sooner the better) for from a glass of gin
  to £200.

                                                        “WILLIAM NEAT.

  “_All Saints’ Lane, Bristol, August 14, 1820._”


Neat’s next match was with the terrific “Gas” for 100 guineas a-side,
and the spot fixed was Newbury, Berks. On Monday, December 11, 1821, the
day before the fight, as soon as daylight peeped, the bustle on the road
to Maidenhead was tremendous. Nothing particular, however, occurred,
except the staring of the good people of Reading at the fancy as they
passed through that place. At the entrance of the town of Newbury a
strong muster of the yokels stationed themselves throughout the whole of
the day grinning at the Londoners as they arrived. Indeed, the road on
Monday, and all night, up to Tuesday morning at twelve o’clock, from the
metropolis, was thronged with vehicles of every description. The roads
leading from Oxford, Gloucester, etc., and likewise from Bristol, were
in the same state with persons anxious to reach the rallying point,
Newbury. All the inns were filled, and the beds engaged some days
previous: it was a prime benefit to the town.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.