BENDIGO AND DEAF BURKE
It is not generally known that a Mr. William Thompson was once Champion
of England. Sometimes a nickname will stick to a man much harder than
the name of his father, and so it was with Thompson. He was one of
a triplet, called, in and out of the family, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. This last, “Thormanby” tells us, soon became “Bednego,” of
which “Bendigo,”--a much easier word to say--is the natural corruption.
To start with, Thompson tried to maintain the full “Abednego,” and
advertised himself as a boxer under that _nom de guerre_ in _Bell’s
Life_. Jem Belcher left his name to a particular sort of scarf. “Jack
Johnson,” a variety of heavy German shell, is at least as well-known
as the negro champion, and thousands of people must know of Bendigo, a
town in Australia, who never heard of Bendigo, the prize-fighter.
Bendigo was a Nottingham man, born in 1812, and his first battle took
place in 1835. This was with Ben Caunt, with whom he fought in all
three times. He was, as champion heavy-weights go, a middle-sized man,
5 feet 9¾ inches in height, and his weight was generally somewhere
in the neighbourhood of twelve stone. He was an all-round athlete, a
fair cricketer and an acrobat: he was also a most scientific boxer,
plucky, and a terribly hard hitter: but his methods were foul. In
his first fight with Caunt his dodge--to which he was ever faithful
in after years--was to hit and then directly there were signs of
possible retaliation to slip down, as plausibly as possible, to avoid
punishment. Going down without a blow was a foul by the rules: but on
the whole Bendigo was wonderfully lucky in his referees. Caunt lost his
temper after a time, and dashing across the ring, hit Bendigo whilst
still on his second’s knees. That was a foul that no referee could by
any conceivable possibility overlook, and Caunt was “deemed the loser.”
Three years later they met again, and this time Caunt won on a foul.
This Ben Caunt also came from Nottingham; a huge fellow of 6 feet 2½
inches, weighing well over 15 stone in condition, and much more than
that out of it. He had enormous bat-like ears which stood out on his
head as do the handles of a cup. In the second fight he showed himself
an inferior boxer to Bendigo: but his size and strength enabled him,
in a close, to seize his opponent and almost to squeeze the breath out
of his body. So far as hitting went, Bendigo had the better of it, and
towards the end of the fight, which lasted for seventy-five rounds, the
betting on him was 3-1. In the last round, however, he fell without a
blow. His supporters declared that he had slipped and that throughout
he had been handicapped by not having his proper fighting shoes.
Caunt’s people, however, appealed to the referee, who gave it a foul,
and Caunt was, therefore, declared the winner. There were many roughs
about the ringside, mostly partisans of Bendigo, and Caunt had to be
mounted on a horse and ride almost for his life to escape them.
Bendigo’s next fight was with Deaf Burke, and it took place near
Appleby in Warwickshire, on February 12th, 1839. Bendigo was in
first-rate condition, whilst his opponent looked pale and flabby. A
diverting incident marked the preliminary arrangements, for there
appeared at the ringside a “not unlikely woman,” as _Bell’s Life_ calls
her, a friend of the “Deaf ‘un,” who shook hands with him over the
ropes and remained in that position of vantage throughout the battle.
Bendigo fought right foot foremost and in a rather stooping position,
whilst Burke’s attitude was more orthodox but a little too square,
judged by the standard of Belcher and Spring. The man who stands square
to his antagonist offers a bigger target, and it has been reckoned
from the beginning of the nineteenth century that “edgeways on” is the
better mode.
The first round was a good one. Both fought carefully and hit hard.
Bendigo’s left was straight and true, and the exchange of blows was
equal. They closed at the end and both went down together. The second
set-to was much the same, though it was noticed that Burke breathed the
more heavily. In the next round, however, Bendigo went ahead, hitting
again and again without a return. Burke seemed to be almost paralysed,
unable either to defend himself or to hit back. His left eye was closed
and at the end of the round, when Bendigo threw and fell on him, he was
evidently feeling ill. He was much marked, whilst Bendigo was quite
fresh and with hardly a flush to show that he had been hit. The fourth
round was similarly Bendigo’s. Burke fought with dogged pluck, but
was clearly out of condition. His seconds shouted to him to go in and
fight, and he did his best, but his opponent’s straight and well-judged
blows came and returned to the same bad eye and battered nose. Finally
Bendigo stepped back rather too quickly, tripped against the lower
rope, and fell out of the ring.
Ill-trained men can often fight with pluck, and Burke did this now,
but his self-confidence had gone. He hesitated about leading, and
whilst making up his mind Bendigo hit him and closed. A little later
Burke took a nip from the brandy bottle, but this did him no good. In
the seventh round he began by fighting hard, hitting left and right,
but was finally thrown. He now accused his man of butting him, and
anxiously appealed to the umpire, but no question of foul play had
arisen. Bendigo had jerked his head back as he flung Burke down, and
had not, as a fact, touched him. Burke was thrown in the eighth round
and knocked down in the ninth. The tenth round was the last. Burke was
now desperate. He rushed in, got close to his man, and hit with both
hands, but he got more in return than he gave. Again he charged at his
opponent, forcing him to the ropes, and whilst pinned with his back
against them Burke deliberately butted Bendigo with his head. Jem Ward,
who was seconding the victim, claimed a foul, which was allowed. Deaf
Burke’s umpire could not deny the justice of the decision; so Bendigo
was proclaimed the winner after twenty-four minutes’ fighting. There
seems to be no doubt that Burke butted openly with this very end in
view of being disqualified, so that an end could be made of a battle
for which he had lost all taste.