Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; to Which is Added Notes on Bull and Badger BaitingRobinson, Jacob
History
Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; to Which is Added Notes on Bull and Badger Baiting
Robinson, Jacob
Wrestlers; Wrestling
"Clattan" was born about the year 1791; and as a lad practised wrestling
upon the village green, with other Dovenby boys of a similar age. Growing
up to manhood, and becoming master of a moderate share of science and
action, he invariably lifted his opponents from the ground, and carried
them off with the outside stroke; his principal mainstay, however, being
his great height and immense weight. In the ring, he was exceedingly
good-natured and affable, and would put himself to any amount of
inconvenience rather than allow his body to fall awkwardly or heavily on a
vanquished foe. He did not, however, follow wrestling closely. He only
appeared upon the horizon by fits and starts, as it were; and in tracing
his career, it will be found that two or three lengthy intervals intervene
between his retirements and reappearances.
As an athlete, Mc.Laughlan was somewhat late in flowering, having reached
the age of twenty-six before he accomplished any feat worthy of record. In
1817, he put in his first public appearance at Carlisle, at the wrestling
in Shearer's Circus. Here he managed to mow down all competitors, including
Tom Todd of Knarsdale, James Robinson, the gamekeeper, and, finally, his
friend and neighbour, John Liddle of Bothel. About this date he was "a
lang, thin, strip iv a chap, like a ladder; hed a varra laddish like leuk;
a feùt gaily nar as lang's a fender; an' was rayder wake aboot the knees."
Or, to change the simile--as a native of Cartmelfell once aptly phrased it:
"Big an' beàny as he was, he was nobbut like a splinter blown off a man!"
After his temporary success at Carlisle, fortune seems to have deserted him
for many years. In 1819, he suffered his most memorable defeat at the hands
of William Wilson of Ambleside, in the Keswick ring, who carried him off
with a sweeping hipe. In 1824, he appeared at Wigton sports, and was thrown
in the third round by Thomas Hodgson, the police-constable; and again in
the third round of the second day, by James Graham of Kirklinton. In
August, 1825, however, Clattan carried off the head prize at Whitehaven;
Jonathan Watson being second.
We are not aware that he wrestled in any ring from the last date mentioned,
until his return in the year 1828, when he had grown amazingly in bulk,
being then about twenty-two stone weight. At that time he was considered to
be the most powerful man in Cumberland, and as an athlete had no rival, if
we except Weightman of Hayton. It was an exaggerated, but nevertheless a
very common saying, that he could lift a cottage house with ease, and carry
it away with him on his back!
The year 1828--with its curious winding-up scene--was the most noteworthy
one in Clattan's wrestling career. In the month of August, he carried off
the head prize at Workington races, with the greatest ease; George Irving
of Boltongate being the second stander.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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