A Handbook of Bandy; or, Hockey on the Ice/Chapter I

"THE game of Bandy, or, as it is often called, 'Hockey on the Ice', is not of modern origin, although until within the last fifteen or twenty years it had, perhaps, never been systematically played elsewhere than in the eastern counties, and few persons outside that district had never seen it, or, indeed, heard of its existence. And, in regards, the eastern counties, it would seem to have been confined to a small district lying on the east of Huntingdonshire, and the west of Cambridgeshire, the centre of which was the village of Earith. The game may have been played on Cowbit Wash, on the washes lying between the New Nene and Morton's Leam, on the meres, now, alas! dry land, of Ramsey and Whittlesea. But if it, indeed, flourished on these waters, we have no records and no information of the fact. Yet it must have been played outside the fen districts, at any rate with some frequency, some forty of fifty years ago, as Sir John Astley says it was played on the washes at Oxford during his first term there, and in the account he gives of a game played in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle in 1853 he speaks of it as his favourite game. The passage is interesting, and we give it in full:

'Just previous to Christmas', he says, 'we had a lot of hard weather, and with it some first-rate ice, which gave me ample opportunities of playing my favourite game of hockey on the ice. Our battalion was then quartered at Windsor, and it reached my ears that a match was to be played on the pond on the slopes below the terrace at Windsor Castle, and, though I really had no business there, I felt very keen to show my powers before Royalty (the Royal Family being at the Castle), so I smuggled myself down to the pond, and as I was known to be useful at the game, Dudley de Ros, of the 1st Life Guards, and I tossed up for sides. The pond – as I recollect it – was an oval one with an island in the centre, on which the band of our regiment was stationed. At one end of the pond Her Gracious Majesty was seated, surrounded by several of the ladies of the Court, watching the game with evident interest. The Prince Consort – who was a beautiful and graceful figure skater – kept goal for the opposite side, and Lord Listowel (father of the present Earl) kept ours. I don't think that I ever enjoyed a game more, and it was that day I first had the honour of making the acquaintance of the Prince of Wales. The game waxed fast and furious, and I am afraid that I was sufficiently wanting in respect to interfere once, at least, with the Prince Consort's equilibrium in my eagerness to get a goal.'

'The edges of the pond sloped up where Her Majesty was sitting, and in a desperate rally with De Ros I lost my balance, and came down in a sitting posture, the impetus I had on carrying me right over to the Queen's feet, and the hearty laughter which greeted my unbidden arrival is still vividly impressed on my mind. It was altogether a glorious afternoon's sport, but as the ice was beginning to thaw and the surface was, to a certain extent, covered with water, I was wet to the skin, and only escaped a rheumatic attack by imbibing plenty of deliciously mulled port wine which was served in a conservatory under the terrace. To this decoction I must attribute my audacity in venturing to go down to the Foot Guard's barracks, where I received a jobation from the C.O. for having the effrontery to take part in a game to which I was not asked, but as I had played well I was not cashiered on that occasion.' – 'Fifty Years of my Life', by Sir John Astley, Bart. Hurst and Blackett, 1894.

The Honourable Dudley de Ros, now Lord de Ros, and the president of the London Skating Club, has been good enough to inform the writer that the game was also the favourite amusement of the late Prince Consort when the Court was at Windsor, and that the game in question was played with curved hockey sticks and a bung, and some four or five players on each side.

Stray games may also have been played by fen skaters from time to time in London end elsewhere, as when one afternoon in the bitterly cold winter of 1860, the late Mr. Neville Goodman, of Cambridge, one of the best and most enthusiastic of players, and Mr. C. P. Tebbutt, of Bluntisham. picked up sides from the chance skaters on the lake at the Crystal Palace, and improvising goals, played a game there, after a fashion.

But in the district lying around Earith the game has been played from a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and definite information, if not records, has been obtained of matches played there for some seventy or eighty years, while tradition vaguely carries us back generations earlier.

Earith is a village of some 600 inhabitants lying on the borders of the fen country, at the point where the River Ouse formerly divided itself into a delta, and thus found its way eventually to the Wash. The delta no longer exists; the river, barred from its only ancient course that now exists by sluice gates, runs down a broad artificial channel, the "New River", or the "Hundred Foot", for twenty miles or more, till it meets and pours its waters into the natural course of the Cam at Salters Lode. Running parallel to the New River is another great drain, the "Old Bedford", and between these two are lands liable to floods, called "washes". There are also other washes at Earith, between the natural river and the artificial banks which protect the neighbouring fields from its floods. Adjoining the village on the west is a low-lying tract of meadow land, some hundred acres in extent, lying alongside the river, but protected from its floods by banks in which are small sluices. These meadows are divided into "Little Fen" and "Bury Fen", both for shortness usually called "Bury Fen". It has been the practice of the occupiers of these fens during times of winter flood to open these sluice gates, and let the muddy river water flow in upon the fen some foot or two deep. This "white" water, as it is called, then deposits its fertile sediment upon the land, and having done so may be drawn off at pleasure as soon as the river has fallen. But as the water may be left upon the land for many days, if not weeks, without any serious damage being done to the grass, a little management has enabled the villagers to have a fine skating and bandy ground at little or no expense. The tract is large enough when all covered to furnish half-a-dozen or more full-sized bandy grounds. It has lately been cut into two parts by the embankment of the local branch of the Great Eastern Railway, but this does not interfere with the bandy playing, although it has materially affected the ground for the purposes of racing. Before the rise of the N.S.A., when there was no gate money, and the prizes were provided by public subscription, races at which the best men would compete were from time to time held here, but now no longer.

It will thus be seen that the village is exceptionally well provided with bandy grounds. Itself a little port (now, alas, somewhat decayed through the influence of railroads) on the great waterway from Lynn to the towns of St. Ives, Huntingdon, and Bedford, its watermen, frozen out in winter from their barges, but still loth to leave their accustomed element, betook themselves to their 'pattens', and were among the chief supporters of the game. Upon the river and the washes they indulged in the pastime, and would from time to time skate down the great fen drains to Sutton, Mepal, and Welney (the home of modern fast skating), in search of opponents worthy of their willow. Cottenham, also Willingham, Swavesey, and Chatteris, were often within skating reach of Earith, and matches were played with teams from these villages. As these places had inferior grounds to practice on, or fewer opportunities – perhaps only the course of a fen drain – the Earith players naturally were at a great advantage, and easily defeated them. So much was this case that it was their tradition and boast that they had never been beaten; a boast which, rash as it may sound, it was hard, if not impossible, to disprove. Like cricketers, bandy players then, if not now, handled the willow, and it might be said of Earith with regard to bandy, as was said of Hambleton with regard to cricket, that it could challenge the rest of England and win.

Of late years the game has been always played upon Bury Fen. Players from Bluntisham have taken a considerable part in it, and the club has found its chief opponents in the teams from St. Ives, Huntingdon, and Godmanchester, the latter captained by the late Mr. F. Beart, whose untimely death during this year the players in Huntingdonshire, in common with all who knew him, deplore.

But though the game was played in the fen districts with considerable interest and skill, yet is was formerly conducted in a loose and informal fashion. On grand occasions the goals would be formed of willow boughs, stuck through holes in the ice, with their free ends bent over till they met, and then tied together so as to form an arch. But in ordinary cases they were represented by sods of earth cut from the bank, and placed on each side of the goal, and which were as often as not entirely hidden beneath a pile of coats. No distance was fixed as the proper one between the goals, and there were no defined boundaries. the game was played with various kinds of cats, sometimes with a bung, sometimes with a list ball made by the village tailor, sometimes even with a piece of wood sawn off the end of a batten, and with bandies of all shapes and sizes. There were no written rules, no penalty for breach of the unwritten ones, no organized club, no formally elected captain. The arrangement of the matches was left to those who would undertake them; while certain rules had grown up and were generally observed, and were probably added to as occasion suggested.

Moreover, there was hardly an attempt at a division of duties among the members of the team, or of combined play, beyond the institution of a goal-keeper; backs, half-backs and forwards were unknown; everybody tried to make a run with the ball for himself. Yet, played in this crude fashion, the game was a very enjoyable way of spending a frosty afternoon, and attracted alike the squire and the labourer, the farmer and the tradesman. It presented a sight which, even within the recollection of the writer, is beginning to appear strange to us. A crowd of men, mostly young, clad in work-a-day clothes, armed with walking sticks or curved willow boughs, usually just as cut from the tree, rushing helter-skelter after the cat, but at the same time dribbling, turning, stopping, and skating with skill and precision. Light bandies were usual, but some men would affect enormous implements, looking like young trees hewn into shape, and the story goes that a team once appeared from Swavesey armed throughout with weapons of this kind, so weighty and formidable that it was thought well to decide all disputed questions arising that day in their favour.

Until quite recently, there was no manufacture of bandies. The player had to depend upon finding a willow branch which had by happy chance grown into a fitting shape. The ardent amateur would scour the neighbourhood for this purpose, and, having spotted some likely bough, would, perhaps, with rare self-restraint leave it to thicken by another year's growth, only after all to find next year that he had been forestalled by some 'earlier bird', who had carried off the prize. To obtain a good bandy then was no easy matter, and, when obtained, it was prized as that which money cannot replace.

The rules observed during the play were, broadly speaking, these:

- To put the goals as far apart as possible, up to about 200 yards.

- To play as long as time allowed, the best (two) out of three goals making a game.

- To change ends after each goal.

- To allow no handling of the ball, no charging at, tripping, or catching hold of an opponent; otherwise to play as you like; and stop, kick, or push the ball with your body or foot.

- The goal posts were usually ten or eleven feet apart.

Under these simple rules games were played with success, and perhaps hardly more disputes then arouse than do now under the elaborate codes of modern football. Probably the greatest defect was the want of defined boundaries. This, perhaps, arose from games having usually been played on the river, or adjoining washes, where the banks themselves limited the ground. But when the play was on Bury Fen, the defect became apparent. Egoistic dribblers, more intent upon a run with the ball than thinking about getting a goal, would edge away more and more to the side to escape the tackling of some persistent opponent, and the two players would almost disappear in far distance, and become

Though lost to sight, to memory dear,

while the rest of the players would be bumping their bandies on the ground with cold and impatience. Another defect was the goal-posts being so near together made it extremely difficult to get goals, especially when, as happened once in the recollection of the writer, a very tall man, acting as goal-keeper, threatened to lie down in front of his goal, and actually did so for a little while, thus blocking, almost, the entire gangway.

At length, however, it was felt that matters must be put upon a more satisfactory footing, and in 1882 Mr. F. Jewson, of Earith, and Mr. Arnold Tebbutt of Bluntisham, drew up a set of rules, which embodied the unwritten ones, and supplied their defects. These rules, which, as far as the writer is aware, formed the first written code that existed, defined the size of the ground and of the bandies, and also their length; also the number of players. There was no rule as to offside, but no person was to 'persistently stand within twelve yards of his opponents' goal'. There was no rule against kicking. Two of the rules may appear amusing. Rule XI. was, 'If any players throws down or drops his hockey, an opponent may pick it up and throw it away'. Rule XII. was, 'No player shall be allowed to use more than one hockey at a time'. But the writer is by no means sure that they were not framed against practices quite possible, and certainly objectionable, and that the former does not provide a natural and happy remedy.

These rules were shortly afterwards carefully considered and redrawn by a committee of the club, with the invaluable assistance of Mr. Neville Goodman. The new code was adopted by the N.S.A., and from that time till 1891 all matches in the fen district were played under it. For further information as to the game as played in this locality, the reader is referred to the chapter on bandy in the Badminton volume on Skating [1892], and to a little known 'Handbook of Fen Skating' by Neville Goodman and Albert Goodman, published in 1882.

Let us now consider the game as played outside the fen district, and to do so we naturally turn to the well known lake, Virginia Water, and the club which bears its name. The club was founded in 1873 by Mr. Harold Blackett, who is still its energetic captain and secretary. The cat there used was a bung bound round with string, and later, covered with leather. The bandy, or rather the hockey stick, was restricted to a light ash stick of the thickness of an ordinary walking stick. The grounds were properly bounded, but much smaller than those used on Bury Fen. The ordinary football rule of offside was adopted, but there were no written rules.

The first recorded match was played in 1879, on Virginia Water, against an Oxford team captained by the Rev. C. de Salis. This was followed by matches with St. Thomas' Hospital, Coopers Hill, Staines, and Wimbledon; and as other clubs were started in the neighbourhood they also were challenged. Many of these teams consisted of fine athletic hockey and football players; but Virginia Water easily established and maintained its supremacy over all comers.

As yet there had been no encounter between the players of the Eastern counties and those of the London or South London district; and they hardly knew more of each other than the bare fact of existence. In 1890, however, Dr. Roger Goodman, a son of Mr. Neville Goodman, having gone to reside at Kingston, and having become acquainted with the doings of the Virginia Water Club, arranged a match between that club and a fen team, which was played on Virginia Water on January 22nd, 1891. The visiting team was composed of Bury Fen men, and were captained by Dr. Goodman. When they arrived upon the ground, armed with their broad ash bandies, a difficulty at once arose from the difference in the rules and manner of play of the two teams. It was decided to play the first half of the time with the sticks and bung, under the rules of the home team; the latter half with the bandies and ball of the visitors. During the first half the fen men did not have a very comfortable time of it, and were beaten by one goal to none. If they expected to have their revenge during the second half of the time they must have been sadly disappointed. The home team took very kindly to the new form of warfare, and easily beat the fen men with their own weapons. Various excuses were given by the friends of the visitors for their defeat, some of which were, no doubt, well founded. One of the chief reasons, however, was that, while the fen men to a great extent played each for himself, their opponents played a clever combined game, which, at any rate, on ground of the size played on, made the irresistible.

The game was the death blow of the stick and bung game, for most of the Virginia Water players admitted that the bandy and ball was the best game of the two, while not a fen player could ever have been induced to use the sticks and bung again.

As a result of this encounter, Mr. Harold Blackett and Mr. C. G. Tebbutt, the Bury Fen captain, called a meeting of hockey and bandy players at Anderton's Hotel in London for the purpose of agreeing upon general rules, and putting the game upon a broad basis. All the known clubs were invited to send representatives, and the meeting, which took place on February 9th, 1891, was well attended. The following players (among others) were present, Mr. Arnold Tebbutt, of Winchester, being in the chair: - Messrs. G. E. B. Kennedy, J. A. Milner, H. O. Milner, and H. J. Davenport, of the Molesey Hockey Club; C. B. Burrows, P. Laming, J. J. Ward, Harold Blackett, S. King Farlow, and A. R. King Farlow, of the Virginia Water Ice Hockey Club; H. T. Cattley and E. W. Sargeant, of the Surbiton Hockey Club; A. L. Allen, of the Chislehurst Hockey Club; J. G. Wylie, of the Putney Hockey Club; E. T. Sachs, of Molesey; and H. Ellington, of the London Rowing Club. A Bandy Association was formed, and some of the more important questions respecting the rules were discussed and determined, especially the one that the use of the broad bandy, and indiarubber ball should be adopted. The meeting was at length adjourned, and again met at the offices of Messrs. King-Farlow (Cheapside), where the code which is now in force, and under which all matches have since been played, was finally settled and adopted. The former rules of the Bury Fen Club were to a considerable extent embodied in it, the chief points of difference being the following:

1. - The width of the bandy was reduced from 2 ½ to 2 inches.

2. - Ends were only to be changed at half-time.

3. – The rule of offside was introduced, but limited to the opponents' half of the ground, in place of the rule against not standing within 20 yards of the goal.

4. – The ball was to be thrown in from the side lines, instead of struck in.

5. – The goal-keeper was not allowed to throw the ball.

6. – Kicking the ball, and fencing, hooking, or lifting bandies was not allowed.

7. – Provision was made for corner hits.

8. – No limit was made to length of bandy.

In this last respect it seems doubtful whether the new code is better than the old one, as also in the abolition of hitting the ball from the side lines, which is often a pleasanter course than picking it up when wet and cold. And now the Bandy Association has, at its last meeting, changed these new rules in these matters, and adopted the former Bury Fen practice. And, again, the rule against kicking, though it may be theoretically correct, leads to practical difficulties, as when a player is skating fast and attempting to stop the ball with his foot it is extremely difficult to say whether or not he has kicked it, as in any case the ball will probably bound forward. This observation recalls a curious incident which occurred in a match some thirty years ago on Bury Fen. The indiarubber ball struck against the skate of one of the players, and became fixed between the wood and the iron prow, and carrying the ball in this manner, the player skated through the goal posts and scored a goal, pursued by a crowd of opponents trying in vain to knock the ball out of its lodgment. It would seem that, should such a case occur again, it would be a nice point to decide whether it came within the prohibitions of the present rules. But whatever its possible shortcomings, the code has been found to work well, and its success shows that its compilers knew what they were about.

The game seems now fairly established as a national pastime, and its popularity is increasing. Numerous clubs have sprung up in the district south of London, and there are clubs also at Northampton, Leamington, and Winchester. Besides those on Engelmere, Camberly Lake, and Lynton Park (Maidstone), matches were played at Maiden Erlegh (near Reading), Elsenham Park (Essex), Staplehurst Park (Kent), Stoke Park (Stoke Pogis), Blenheim Park, and other places. The game has obtained a footing at the Universities, and we read (Field, February 16th, 1895) that 'bandy has quite taken the place of football at Oxford'; while an inter-university match took place in the same month at Blenheim Park. It has followed our countrymen abroad, and a match was played last season at Davos Platz between that place and St. Moritz. Royalty has again honoured it with attention, and we read last season of matches played on the ice at Buckingham Palace and at Sandringham in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Ladies also have invaded this sport as others, and this last season have played many games on Bury Fen and other places. Two more matches have taken place between the players of Virginia Water and Bury Fen upon the latter ground, with the result that it would seem that the elder club can, upon their own ground, at least hold their own against their formidable opponents.

With regard to Holland and other northern European countries, a short description of the starting and progress of the game there will be found in another chapter.

Such is in some sort of a history of the game as far as it is known; a game which we have the authority of Sir John Astley for saying, is, in his judgment – and who could be a better judge – one of the best games a man can play. The least played and known of the sister trio of bandy, hockey-on-land, and football, it is surely not the least attractive of the three. No other game equals it in brilliancy. In football or [field] hockey the player who has the ball can only dribble it sloslowly and with difficulty. He can always be easily overtaken by an opponent from behind, and has great difficulty in getting by one in front. But in bandy the skater can carry the ball in front of him by skillful movements of his bandy, while going within an ace of his greatest speed; and when in full course with the ball he will usually elude an opponent who meets him with the greatest ease, and almost without slackening his pace. Hence the game is exceedingly fast, the ball travels from one part of the field to another with the utmost rapidity, and the scene upon the ground changes from moment to moment like those in a kaleidoscope. After witnessing these games, those on the football or hockey field seem slow and tame. These latter sports have one great advantage. They may be played over many months of the year, and fixtures may be made for them with tolerable certainty of being able to be carried out. But, alas! with bandy, it can only be played at most during a few weeks in the year, and even then no fixture can be made, with any reasonable chance of success, more than two or three days beforehand. And even when the conditions seem most favourable beforehand, the looked for morning may bring with it a change in the weather, a rapid thaw, or a fall of snow, and mockingly baulk our sport. Fortunately, nowadays we have railroads and telegraphs, and with their aid matches may now and then be arranged and carried out with distant teams, though only with trouble and uncertainty. It thus seems impossible that the game can ever attain a popularity like that of football or cricket. Those who play, unless living in a place like Earith or Swavesey, must be able to take their holidays as the weather dictates, and hurry off to the ice almost at an hour's notice. Engagements of business and pleasure must be put aside, markets and dances alike given up, and he who puts off till to-morrow may find he has disregarded the old adage to his loss. But these difficulties only add zest to the appetite of its devotees, and the game itself, when at last enjoyed, is so exhilarating – it might almost be said intoxicating – that all previous worry and trouble are forgotten, or, if thought of, appear but as dust in the balance compared with its exceeding great reward.