COCK-MATCH
;—an agreement and article entered into by opposite parties, to shew any number of cocks (as "twenty-one, thirty-one, or forty-one) on each side in the main and ten in the byes, to fight for ten guineas a battle, and fifty the odd." The cocks so agreed to be matched, are under the management of their different feeders till the day specified in the article for their being shewn and weighed; which day is, upon most occasions, the day but one preceding the day on which the main begins to be fought. This ceremony is attended to with the most scrupulous nicety on each side; every cock is weighed precisely to a quarter of an ounce; his colour described almost to a feather; his marks in the eye, the right and left norrel, the in right and out left in the feet, are all taken down in writing with the same accuracy as the weight; the whole being entered in the match-bills to be produced, read, and compared, with the cocks as they are brought to pit at the commencement of every battle.
The number of cocks having been shewn and weighed on each side, the match-bills containing their weights are compared; and all those who are either dead weights, or within an ounce of each other, are said to fall in, and are called main battles; in contra-distinction to those who do not come within the ounce of each other, and are thrown into the byes; which are generally fought for a trifling sum, and have no affinity whatever to the MAIN. Should the cocks thus falling in constitute either a very small or an even number, it is usual then to separate cocks of dead weights, or the nearest so, to match against others, (giving or taking an ounce in weight,) that the main may be extended in respect to the number of battles, and that number to be odd; thereby preventing, if possible, the MAINS being undecided; which, indeed, sometimes happens unavoidably by the chance of a drawn battle.
That the match may be the better understood, let it be supposed that A stands engaged with B "to shew twenty-one cocks on each side, ten guineas a battle, and fifty the MAIN or odd battle." Of these fifteen fall into the main; and the remaining six are thrown into byes, and fight for two guineas a battle. It is in such case a custom to fight a part of the byes, both before and after such part of the main as is fought on each day, whether it is finished in one day, or is a long main of many days duration. The match being concluded, we find A has won nine main battles and two byes; B six main battles and four byes; when the winning and losing will stand precisely thus: A having three battles ahead in the main, is a winner of fifteen guineas upon the single battles; and winning the main also, he wins the twenty-five guineas upon that event; making himself the creditor for forty guineas: but in the byes, B having the advantage of four battles to two won by A, affords him a drawback of two guineas; and B is the loser of thirty-eight guineas battle-money upon the whole match; it being remembered, the byes were fought for only two guineas a battle; or, in other terms, a guinea each cock. And this it will be necessary for young adventurers to remember, that a match made for "ten guineas a battle," is tantamount to five guineas each cock; and "fifty guineas the odd of the main," is always bona fide understood a deposit (if required) before fighting of five-and-twenty guineas a-side.
Cocks of middling size, and adequate powers, are always considered the sharpest and best fighters; in confirmation of which opinion, custom has established the match weights from three pounds six ounces to four pounds eight; none to be shewn and weighed in the main under the former, or above the latter, unless an extension to either a lower or a higher weight should be agreed on by the parties. Sometimes (but very seldom) a short match, of a different kind, takes place, and is termed a "shag-bag" match, (or battle;) which is no more (the battle money having been previously agreed on) than "turning the cock out at the bag's mouth" in the pit, to meet his opponent, without ever having been brought to the scale, or the weight of his adversary ascertained.
In weighing the cocks, and making the match-bill, it is an invariable rule to begin with the lightest pair, who are to fight first, and so continue according to their weight upwards; such successive pair being heavier than the former, so that the heaviest pair of cocks is fought the last. Various sums being betted upon a match (or main) soon after it is made, it may not be inapplicable to observe, that those who lay the odds in any proportion, as five to four, six to four, two to one, (or whatever odds may be laid,) either upon the main or a single battle, is always entitled to the privilege of choosing his side, although it may not be mentioned; and this right he is possessed of in consequence of laying the odds.