Page 18 - L&T Tom Paddock

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Worcestershire Chronicle – Wednesday 12 June 1850

The Championship of England – this very dubious honour, with 200 sovs. a side, was
on Wednesday last, battled for by that old bruiser Bendigo of Nottingham fame, and one
Paddock, a native of Redditch, in this county, ten years his junior. The fight took place in
Suffolk, near the Middenhall station, on the Eastern counties line, the trains of which
brought together an assemblage of some 1,500 of the cognoscenti in pugilistic matters, with
of course a large muster of the “not very particular” sort. Forty-nine rounds were fought in
the short space of 57 minutes, and under a broiling sun, the “young un” being desperate and
forcing the fighting. The encounter was then terminated in favour of Bendigo by a “foul”,
Paddock having deliberately struck his opponent twice while on the ground, with his hands
thrown up. The referee a gentleman who “sooner than spoil the sport” had accepted the
office at the last moment, awarded the battle and belt to Bendigo, whereupon menaces and
threats were lustily bellowed forth by the partisans of the self-defeated one, and a ruffian
with a bludgeon laid open the skull of the judge for his decision. The Redditch man too, on
hearing the fiat, finished his pummelling business by felling Bendigo to the earth in a
dastardly and unlooked for manner. It is high time that the strong arm of the law was more
diligent in the prevention of these disgusting and brutalising scenes, which while they have
their origin in the hot-beds of ignorance, are nevertheless unfortunately countenanced and
encouraged by those who disgrace the rank and station they fulfil, and misappropriate the
affluence which fortune allows them to command. It is a significant fact that neither of the
pugilists could write their names.

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The Era – Sunday 7 July 1850

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