Wrestling Heritage

By Ruslan Pashayev

Appendix: Two Joints Down

THE GENERAL RULES OF ENGLISH WRESTLING, 1700s.

There always has been a great deal of discussion and disagreement regarding to what the famous eighteenth century wrestling educator called Sir Thomas Parkyns considered a Fall in Wrestling when he first laid down his General Rules of English Wrestling in 1727. As a matter of fact the information which comes from his The Cornish Hugg Wrestler is quite contradictory. Therefore I suggest having a closer look at what it actually is that the author says regarding the nature of the legitimate Falls in the game of Wrestling in his very book and in the two different wrestling rule sets which were attached to it; and hopefully finally to find out what was generally accepted as the fair Fall back in the times of the Wrestling Baronet of Bunny in the County of Nottingham, thus establishing the historical accuracy. Here below I provided the extracts from the text of the book in which Parkyn gives his opinion on fair Falls and Foils/foul Falls (Half-Falls).

Reference #1.
“The said two Gamesters shall Wrestle till one of them be thrown three Falls, and he that is first thrown three Falls, shall go out, and not be allow’d to Wrestle again for this Prize: And it is hereby ordered and agreed, that he who first comes with two Joynts at once to the Ground, (as Joynts are commonly reckon’d in Wrestling) shall be reputed to be thrown a Fall.”
In this reference the author makes a statement that all matches are won on three falls and the fall occurs when any two joints of the person’s body (I assume such joints as the wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles) hit the ground together.

Reference #2.
“when they Wrestle, shall Fall upon two joynts, to be accounted a Foil, but if they fall upon any part of their Bodies, to be accounted a fair Fall, and not otherwise”.
In this paragraph the given information appears to be quite opposite to the one specified before. Two joints being on the ground at the same time merely means a Half-Fall, but if the person is thrown onto any part of their body this to be considered a fair Fall.
The references 1 and 2 exclude possibility of both of them being accurate, it was either one that was correct or the other, because from the contemporary newspapers we know that any part of the body down was called Go-Downs and not actual Falls. And that three go-downs were equal one fair fall. And this fact is basically confirmed by the author himself in the next reference.

Reference # 3:
“shall throw the said ____ the first three Falls or give him nine Foils, three Foils to be accounted one Fall or throw him a Fall or Falls, and give him Foils besides, enough to amount such Fall or Falls to three Falls.”

Reference # 4.
“all these masters teach mostly the Tripp, which I assure you is no safe and sound Play, you may know them by their Walkings and Gestures, they stagger, and reel and cross Leggs, which I advise my Scholars to avoid, and receive many a foul Fall in the Sink or Kennel, and were your Constitutions of Porphiry, Marble or Steel, they’ll make you yield to your last and only fair Fall, they’ll assuredly give you on your Backs”.
In this reference the author makes a statement a fair fall is when the person is thrown onto their back.

Reference # 5.
“Out Play Wresting is just like French Fencing, which runneth much upon falsifying, taking and spending of Time, which appears to the Spectator’s Eyes, to be a much neater and genteeler Way of Wrestling, than Inn Play, but you may believe me when I affirm, Out-Players undergo a much greater Fatigue than Inn. Players: depend much upon their Strength, and on particular Draughts and Twistings, which Soon wear them out, by giving Surfeits or Strains, at least having but few Holds, and less Shift to trust unto, I affirm it depends much upon Plucking and Tearing of Clothes, wasting Time, to break his Adversary’s Shins, and Perhaps after an Hour’s foiling he may give his Adversary a chance Catch, or undecided foil to set all the Ring together by the Ears, whose it was, or whether one or no”.

Reference # 6.
“Whereas the Inn-Play, soon decideth who is the better Gamester, by an undisputable Fall, the Head and Shoulders coming to the Ground first, and they that understand Inn-Play last, and stand Champions longer for the Country.”
These two reference speak of the Out-Play being not the most efficient system of wrestling for achieving the undisputable fall (I assume the fair fall) which is defined as a person being thrown in a way that back of their head and their shoulders come to the ground together.

Reference # 7.
“Back-Clamp. When your Adversary Back-Clamps you, which is, when he claps his Heel in your Ham, with a design to throw you backwards, fall inclose to him with your Arms about him; as for the Gripes, bear upon him with your Breast and Chin, and kick your own Breech with your own Heel, with his Feeble Heel in your fort Ham, and his Head and Shoulders will come to the Ground first, that throwing him out of the Line of Direction.”
In this reference the author repeats himself, he praises the kind of felling in which the losing party are thrown onto back of their head and two shoulders.

Reference # 8
“But I advise all my Scholars, to avoid Wrestling with Angels, for tho’ they may maintain the Struggle ’till break o’th Day, and seem to lay their Adversaries Supine, and on their Backs they’ll have the Foil and be out of Joint, with Jacob’s Thigh.”
In this reference the author makes a solid statement the only real fall is when a person is thrown flat onto their back.

Reference # 9.
“The Out-Players and such as would throw their Adversary at Trip, &c. must observe that when they put themselves out of the Line of Direction, either by moving at Arm’s End, crossing of Legs, or Counterpoising as they design the Bearing, or Drought by the Arms, or Tripping and drawing past their Line of Direction, then’s the perfect Crisis to catch at their loose Leg, and trip, or strike at their standing Leg.”
This reference provides basic information regarding the techniques of the Out-Play wrestling system.

Reference # 10.
“…which was my Friend Richard Allen’s Case, at Repton Wrestling;”
The popular in the 1700s Repton Wrestling event is mentioned in this reference.

CONCLUSION.

On the day of Easter of 1828 in the City of Leeds there was held an open to all counties of England championship wrestling tourney. The wrestlers from the Nottinghamshire did participate in it as well among all other best wrestlers from all over the country. Notably, the Notts men claimed a “fair fall” any time their opponent went down. That of course was against the rules of wrestling which governed that tourney according to which the only fair falls or legitimate victories were those in case of which a person was thrown on their back.

“The wrestling was not of the best description, as but a few of the noted players came forward. It was chiefly between the men of Devon and Ireland, who came from London, and scarcely a man from the surrounding counties entered the ting except one from Nottingham, who first ascended the stage to oppose a man from Devon; insisted on every throw he gave his opponent being a fall; was very turbulent. He, however, became more reconciled as the game proceeded, and having thrown one man on Wednesday is entitled to play for the prizes today.” (Easter Wrestling at Haigh Park, Leeds, 1828.)

Interestingly, around the same time in the 1820s and early 1830s Notss wrestlers (among them being famous Joseph Butler who challenged the champion A. Cann and all other top Devon and Cornish wrestlers; and the veteran wrestler called Geo Naylor who in his 60s was open to wrestle any man of his age in the country) would challenge wrestlers from other counties to a match on the Rules of Bunny (two joints down), however not a single one of these challenges was ever accepted by the outsiders. That is how we exclude the possibility of Notts men ever competing for the fair back falls of any kind within the boundaries of their own county.

Considering the above said. I think that the Bunny Rules as they appeared in Parkyns book were misprinted and should read as follows: “Two joints down is a fair fall, and any part of the body down (or a Go-Down) is to be counted as a foil; each fair fall equals three go-downs.” This is very similar to how in some other English counties; let’s say in Berkshire and Wiltshire, the fair back fall was substituted with three go-downs.

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