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
Miles, Henry Downes
Boxing
“Mr. Elliott, on the part of Thomas Spring, and Thomas Belcher, on
the part of William Neat, have deposited £50 a-side, to make a match
on the following terms:—W. Neat agrees to fight T. Spring on
Tuesday, the 26th of November next, for a stake of £600 (£300
a-side), in a twenty-four feet ring, half-minute time. The place to
be named by Mr. Jackson, within forty miles of London, on the
Bristol road, and the umpires to be chosen on the ground. The second
deposit, upon the above conditions, £100 a-side, to be made at T.
Spring’s, Weymouth Arms, Weymouth Street, on the 12th of July,
between the hours of four and eight o’clock. The deposit to be
forfeited by the defaulter. The remainder of the stakes to be made
good at T. Belcher’s, the Castle Tavern, Holborn, on the 12th of
November. Mr. W. S. has received, and is answerable for, the deposit
of £100.”
On the 12th of November a sporting dinner took place at Belcher’s, to
make the stakes good between Neat and Spring. Belcher, on the part of
Neat, completed the stakes of £200; but Mr. Elliott, the backer of
Spring, did not appear, when the chairman reluctantly declared the
deposit down, £150, to be forfeited to Neat.
At a sporting dinner at the One Tun, on the Friday following, November
16th, Spring informed the company that he would have attended at the
Castle Tavern, on the day appointed, but his backer wished him not to
leave the country on any account, as he might take cold—Mr. Elliott
asserting he would make it all right. He (Spring) was now ready to make
a new match for £200 a-side, for the 10th of December.
At Harry Holt’s opening dinner, at the Golden Cross, Cross Lane, Long
Acre, on Friday, November 22nd, 1822, the president informed Mr.
Belcher, that if the stakeholder of the £150 was indemnified, the
forfeiture of that sum by the backer of Spring (Mr. Elliott) would be
given up to Neat. Mr. Belcher replied, he should receive a guarantee.
The president then observed that the sporting world in general were
anxious to have it decided which was the best man between Spring and
Neat; and that the former could be backed for £200 a-side, to fight in
the course of a fortnight. Mr. Belcher, in reply, stated, that Neat,
since the match had been broken off, had conducted himself more like a
bird out of cage than anything else; the “gaily circling glass” had been
continually up to his mouth; the result was, he could not answer for his
condition, and he would not make the match so soon as a fortnight: it
ought to be, at least, a month. Neat had left London for Bristol, and he
had no doubt, from his gay disposition, was playing the same sort of
game there; but he would write to him immediately, and whatever answer
Neat returned as to time, he would then make a fight.
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