West Country Play (1870)
“The play of Cornwall and Devonshire is the same, with a difference. They both have the jacket, and they play for a hitch in the same fashion. Sticklers are appointed, who keep the ring, and the public are present in crowds. In Cornwall, however, the man steps into the ring in his stockings or socks. In Devonshire he wears his shoes, made for the express purpose. He is bound by rule not to have any iron or other metal whatever, in his shoe, but he has the soles so hardened by baking that they are very formidable weapons.
The difference in the play has been called the in-and-out play, the off-and- on play, the toe-and-heel play. Or the Cornish play—the hugging and heaving; the Devonshire play—the kicking and tripping. It might be thus defined: in Cornwall the shoulders and arms are chiefly relied on, in Devonshire the legs.
In Cornwall the Cornish game is always played, in Devonshire the Devonshire game is played; but on the borders of the counties, in Plymouth especially, where a great deal of play used to be seen, Cornwall and Devonshire met one another, and sometimes each would play his own game.
It is not difficult to understand the difference in the play, bearing in mind broadly the Cornish hug and the Devonshire kick. If an unlucky victim had to choose as a fate between one and the other, he might not be able to make up his mind in a hurry. But as the resort to kicking, instead of the true play, fell away sometimes into a kicking match, the Devonshire play got into disrepute, and the kicking was very properly held in scorn, especially in Cornwall.
The style of the two counties being the same, as explained, it cannot be said that in Cornwall the leg-play was not known, or in Devonshire the shoulder-play was not known, but it came to pass that in the one the shoulder play was chiefly followed, and in the other the leg-play. The shoulder-play and the leg-play are here used shortly to refer to a great many different ways of throwing a man a back fall.
In Cornwall a player having got his hitch would proceed to very close quarters, the in-play or on-play, and taking his man round the body, not lower than the waist, throw him over his shoulder, giving him the flying mare (which is poetical enough, considering that Pegasus was a flying horse), and, turning him over on his back while falling, get the back fall. The flying mare might be an affair of some danger. There was a little man at Truro some years ago who could throw the biggest of men by the flying mare. He did not take more than a few minutes about it, and if he failed at first he failed altogether. Big men stood off from him. He was so short that before they could get a hitch of him he was under them, and the flying mare was their due.
In West Country wrestling it would appear that small men can enter the ring with big men, and that would be especially the case in the Devonshire-play. At Penzance in the year 1839 I saw a great wrestling at fair time. It was given out that the St Just men would play the world—the Cornish world of course, though they were ready for all the world, no doubt. A very fine young St Just man stepped into the ring with great confidence, and was followed, to my great surprise, but not to the surprise of the company in general, by a very small man. The small man gave himself up to the big young man without playing for a hitch, and was taken into the arms of the big one to be dealt with. Suddenly I saw the big one on his back, a fair back fall. It was done by the inside lock, leg-play.
In shoulder-play, a little man could have but small chance with a big one, except in the case of the Truro man described, but in the leg-play he might trip up the giant.
Besides the flying mare, there is the cross-buttock fall in shoulder-play, the back heave, and others. In the leg-play, there are the fore-lock, the back-lock, heaving toe, the back-heel, and others. Cornish players know them all, and Devonshire players know them all. Some are not readily played without the shoe, hence the lapse into kicking.
On the borders of the Tamar, at Plymouth, for example, famous wrestlings have taken place, and the best players of both counties have met there. In making the standards usually Cornwall would play Cornwall, and Devonshire. And in the double play the sticklers would match them in like fashion, but in the end Cornwall must meet Devonshire, nothing loth on either side. The Cornish player would play for his hitch to draw his man in, the Devonshire man would play for his hitch to keep his man off. As long as the Devonshire player could keep his man off, he could play with his toe. The Cornish player did not seem to fear the kick, the stop to which is the knee. The kick, supposing the toe-play to be played without the savage kicking which was discountenanced for good-fellowship sake, is directed against the inside of the knee just under the joint. The stop is bending the knee to meet the kick, stopping the toe by receiving the shin against the knee, a most effective and punishing stop. In kicking, the player must of necessity have but one leg on the ground, and having an off-hitch might be thrown by a quick player with a trip or a lock. The Devonshire play is a lively play: the kick and the leg-play in general must be very quick, and it is undoubtedly fine play when properly played. If the Cornish player were not thrown in the Devonshire out-play, he would get his man too close to him for a kick, and try his own Cornish play on him. The Devonshire player would still play his leg-play, and a couple of hours might pass before one or the other got his back fall. The play would be well understood and be intensely interesting to a large company, the rivalry between the two counties always being at fever heat.”
The Westcountry Anthology: Item 252: West Country Play