We have not met with any good or detailed account of this remarkable battle, and shall therefore add another report, which we find in “Pancratia,” pp. 237–238.
“As so many amateurs had collected and come from town, a distance of thirty-two miles, to be present at this famous match, they were determined to knock up a fight, and Tom Cribb, the Black Diamond, who ranked very high as a pugilist, was matched against a man of the name of Nicholls, a Bristol man, and who, like Gully, had never fought on a London stage. The former was seconded by Dick Hall, and the latter by Tom Jones. At setting-to Cribb was the favourite, and odds were greatly in his favour. In the first round Nicholls, however, brought him down; but this was thought nothing of, as it was well known Cribb frequently threw himself back to avoid a blow. In the fourth round Cribb put in a most severe blow, and cut his opponent under the right eye. Nicholls still fought with great spirit, and perfectly cool and good-tempered. By the end of the twentieth round Nicholls had perfectly closed one of his antagonist’s eyes, notwithstanding he fought with great dexterity, and made several good rallies. At the end of the fortieth round Cribb appeared distressed in his wind; he, however, had somewhat recovered the sight of his eye, but began to fight very shyly, and shift: his blows were frequently short, and he several times fell back from his own hits. At the end of the fifty-second round he gave in, and the knowing ones were done, as they were sanguine of Cribb, even to the last. Nicholls was by all acknowledged a prime fellow: his superiority consisted of very expertly breaking on his adversary, in the style of Slack, by projecting his arm suddenly against his antagonist’s face when he swung forward to put in a blow. It has been asserted in the public prints that Cribb never has been unsuccessful throughout his pugilistic career; but this must be the consequence of ignorance on the subject.”
Nicholls now retired from the ring, and, returning to his native city, invested the money he had gained, and which had been somewhat augmented by the subscriptions of several patrons of manly courage, in a butcher’s shop, in Gloucester Lane, Bristol. Here he added another to the innumerable contradictions to those maligners of pugilism, who would identify it with ruffianism, by earning in a long life the character of a quiet, inoffensive, nay, a retiring man. In fact, all who remember him describe him as “shunning general company, rarely visiting a public house, and of a somewhat religious turn of mind;” the leisure time his business afforded him being occupied in angling, his favourite recreation. He died at his native place, June 6, 1832, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.
DAN DOGHERTY—1806–1811.
As the name of Dogherty is continually found scattered up and down the reports of ring affairs for many years, and also in the pages of “Pancratia” and “Boxiana,” we shall devote a few paragraphs to a sketch of his ring career, chiefly from the latter work.
Dogherty’s first set-to was early in June, 1806, with a Jew, at Wilsden Green, where he proved the conqueror; and shortly afterwards, at the same place, on the 17th, he easily beat one Wall.
On Lowfield Common, near Crawley, Sussex, August 21, 1807, he conquered Dick Hall; and on his return home that day had a turn-up in the road with Jack Warr, whom he milled.
George Cribb he defeated twice. See George Cribb.
On Epsom Downs, Tom Belcher conquered Dogherty. See ante, p. 156.
Dogherty fought one Pentikin, a Scotch Baker, at Golder’s Green, Hendon, June 11, 1808, for forty-five minutes, when Pentikin gave in. Dogherty fought him forty guineas to twenty.