WILLIAMS THE WALKER A
If you dig deep, Dartmouth has an interesting sporting history. In his booklet “Sports People of Dartmouth”, Alan Coles, the late editor and proprietor of the Dartmouth Chronicle (1962-68), wrote about some of the outstanding personalities and events. This second extract is reprinted with the kind permission of the Dartmouth History Research Group. Copies of the book can be bought from the Harbour Bookshop, the TIC and Dartmouth Museum (see
www.dartmouth-history.org.uk)
s sport has grown in stature, both nationally and internationally, it is strange
that in Dartmouth it has declined at top level. There was a time when the town was one of the centres of Devon sport. Champion boxers fought on the New Ground – now the car park – top flight athletes competed there, as did racing cyclists: Dr. W.G. Grace played cricket against HMS Britannia and horses which ran at first-class race meetings, like Ascot, were trained at Bowden. The tail end of the 19th century
was the year of the marathon runner or long-distance walker as far as Dartmouth was concerned. The athletic club was in fine fettle and attracted many English champions to show off their skills on the New Ground. But the event which captured most the imagination of the locals was pedestrianism. This was the day which Shanks’s pony was the great prover of men. Walking matches were as popular as the counter attraction of cycle racing. A favourite local bet was
walking a mile fully attired to the Royal Castle Hotel, with the loser buying drinks all round. Although Dartmouth was not
walking country, it had as a resident the legendary Charlie Williams who boasted that he could walk anyone off their feet. Williams trained on hills and when he came down to flat track walking, it all seemed surprisingly easy to him. For years he held the championship of Devon and his many friends were convinced that he was one of the greatest walkers in Britain, if not in the world. Unfortunately Charlie was not an amateur. He competed for money. Some of his matches were made with stakes of anything up to £50, a handsome sum in Victorian times. Although there was no official county professional title, Charlie acquired it by throwing out challenges through the columns of the Sporting Life, which provided stakeholders and referees. But Charlie was no fool. He made
his own terms for the contests and often when the competition might be
tough he insisted that there should not be a referee. It is doubtful today whether his style would have passed the scrutiny of athletic officials, but he was a popular man in Dartmouth and there was no-one who had the nerve to call him or rule him out of a race for running. In 1888 there arrived in Dartmouth a namesake of his – but no relation – who had heard of Charlie’s walking feats and was determined to beat him. He was Billy Williams, a Royal Marine onboard HMS Britannia. Younger and considering himself fitter, Billy challenged Charlie to a two hour endurance race, a time which many considered that Charlie was incapable of seeing out. But the wily Dartmouth man won easily. Within a few months the young Marine threw down the gauntlet again, and lost for a second time. It was obvious to those who
watched these matches that Billy’s style would never make any impression on Charlie’s near jog- trot, so the marine began to train in secret and plot the downfall of the Dartmouth veteran. Nothing was heard of him for nearly 18 months; meanwhile Williams senior was becoming more confident with successive victories. In the April of 1889 he had one of his toughest tests when he took on the London walker Ernie Wells at Dartmouth football ground. One thousand spectators were there to see the Londoner who had won dozens of prizes for events between 50 and 100 miles, although he was known not to be a time expert. Charlie had the exceptional knack of pacing himself well and rarely would be shaken out of his hour-glass like timing. There was nothing between the two over the first mile, which was completed in ten minutes; then the next two miles were reeled off at
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