I am currently working on two posts about Jack Wannop’s 1888-1889 boxing and wrestling tour of America and how it was reported before, during and afterward by the US and UK press. There are so many dramatic and absurd stories from his trip to share. While I’m finishing those articles off, here is a brief… Read More The Prince and The Prize-Fighters
Last week I read Andrew Horrall’s excellent Popular Culture in London c. 1890-1910 (Manchester University Press, 2001), and in Chapter 10, Boxing, he explores the introduction of sport to the music hall stage. In the two decades prior to WWI, boxing was transformed from “brutal, semi-legal origins to middle-class respectability” writes Horrall and during the… Read More “Uncompromisingly bad men decisively bested in the final scene by unimpeachably good heroes”
“Turn your left side to your opponent, get your hip partially underneath him, then, quick as lightning cross both his legs by your left and lift him from the ground. Both will come down, but your assailant will be undermost… The cross-buttock is a very fancy-looking move…” – Walter Armstrong, Wrestling, 1890 Let me introduce… Read More Who was The Cross-Buttocker? An Introduction to Walter Armstrong
Even today it is remarkable how many people have never heard of our fine bit of the city, or at the very least they roll their eyes upon requests to visit, believing it might be hours from the metropolis. Zone 2, guys. Zone 2. And it seems things weren’t much different in the 1880s –… Read More “It was worth all the journey to New Cross…”
I’m still working on my first article about wrestling journalist Walter ‘The Cross-Buttocker’ Armstrong but in the mean time wanted to share a write-up from The Sporting Life‘s 2nd December 1897 issue. Easier-to-read extracts are copied out at the bottom of this post. It’s really rather heart-warming (unless you’re “flannel-belly” Harry Oliver!), and just one… Read More “Boys, I’m with you”
Grappling With History 