Street fighting tries to be fair in the face of overwhelming disparities : if a one-legged man fights a two-legged man, how do you bring about a level of equality to make the fight fair ? And was there any dough to be won ? Read on.
‘On Wednesday the 26th ult. a pugilistic contest, rather of a novel nature, took place at Bingham between a disciple of Esculapius, and a baker, both of that town : a great deal of chaffing took place as to the disadvantage the latter laboured under, the doctor being a biped, whilst the dusty knight was minus a leg : the dispute was, whether the contest should be carried on up and down (a-la-Lancashire), sitting, or be a stand-up fight : the last mode was determined upon ; and in order to bring things to an equality as nearly as might be, the knight of the lancet agreed to have a leg tied up. These preliminaries being settled, after peeling, they hopped to the scratch, and a furious set-to commenced : the baker’s oven waxing warm, set the yeast in his batch into such a state of fermentation, that being off his guard, his antagonist administered some bitter pills, let him blood pretty freely, and hammered away with nature’s pestles as though he had been braying in a mortar : but the crusty veteran’s choler abating, he, in his turn, kneaded his opponent’s dough in such a manner, that he reluctantly cried out “enough,” and the man of meal, crowned with bays, was carried off the field with all the uproarious eclat possible.’
Stamford Mercury, 4th April, 1828.