William Hammersley on the first rules
Reminiscences of Cricket and Other Sports
As many of our sporting readers are no doubt aware, Mr Hammersley was for nearly 18 years sporting editor of the Australasian. Consequently, his “Reminiscences” cannot fail to be read with interest.
[Editor's note: The following paragraphs are an extract from the aforementioned article by William Hammersley. Published as a nine-part series in the Sydney Mail in 1883, the articles deal overwhelmingly with Cricket, with other 'sporting' activities, including football, mentioned more briefly.]
...Perhaps football is the most popular game in Victoria, it runs the turf and cricket very hard, as regards popularity, I am sure. I believe a learned barrister in Melbourne described it lately as a game that only idiots could stand all day to look at. Well, curiously enough, I must be an idiot, for, though no one was fonder of football 'to play,' I never care now to go across the road to look at a match. When the game was first started in Victoria, on anything like a footing (that was in 1857) it was a very rough game and no mistake. My shins now show honorable scars, and often have I had the blood trickling down my legs. No wonder, for hacking was permitted, and no objection was taken to spiked shoes.
One day, however, after a severe fight in the old Richmond paddock when blood had been drawn freely, and some smart raps exchanged, and a leg broken, it occurred to some of us that if we had rules to play under it would be better. Tom Wills suggested the Rugby rules, but nobody understood them except himself, and the usual result was; adjourn to the Parade Hotel close by, and think the matter over. This we did, with the following result: several drinks and the formation of a committee, consisting of Tom Wills, myself, J. B. Thompson, and ‘Football’ Smith, as he was termed, a Master in the Scotch College, a rattling fine player and a splendid kick, but of a very peppery temper. We decided to draw up as simple a code of rules, and as few as possible, so that anyone could quickly understand. We did so, and the result was the rules then drawn up form the basis of the present code, under which the game is universally played in Victoria and most other parts of Australia. I feel sure that neither the Rugby or the Association rules will ever supplant them...
Footnotes
Title: Reminiscences of Cricket and Other Sports
Author: William Hammersley
Publisher: The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW: 1871-1912)
Date: Saturday, 25 August 1883, p.363 (Article)
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