Official city cockfights, as opposed to the many casual contests between individual owners, ran over 3 or 4 days and started with everybody showing the cocks they intended to use in the cockpit. Each cock would be carefully assessed to ensure that its owner was not cheating in the way he had prepared his bird. Fines for cocks judged to be fraudulent were levied at around 3 shillings and 4 pence a bird, and birds were banned from fighting for the rest of the year.
Cocks would then have their feathers trimmed in accordance with the rules agreed with other owners. A fine of around 10 shillings would be levied on anyone breaching the terms of this agreement. Birds were matched by weight and wore metal spurs which inflicted terrible injuries.
Cockfights were controlled by an official known as the “Master of the Match” whose decisions were final.
Sometimes, matched cocks refused to fight and had to be withdrawn after 10 attempts to get them to do so.
The official matches received national publicity by being recorded in the annual racing calendars and in the London press.
Cockfighting prior to the eighteenth century had taken place in a purpose-built building in Timber Green on the edge of what is now Saw Close. By 1725 however, when Gloucester met Somerset, the cockpit had fallen out of use, and the match took place at the White Lion inn. The next county clash, this time between Gloucester and Dorset in 1729, took place at the Lamb, which seems to have provided the venue for most major meetings.
Also, in 1729 at the beginning of March Mr Cains and Mr Figg fought a match, 31 cocks a side for 2 Guineas for each match and 20 for the overall result known as the “main”. The match was won by 2 battles, with birds weighing between 3lb 8 oz and 4lb 8oz. The winner would, therefore, have received 24 guineas, but this would have been a trivial amount in comparison to the side bets made around the pit.
The next year April 1730, saw a match between Mr Cain, who showed 31 Cocks, against Mr Johnson at 4 Guineas and 40. In the end, after the birds were inspected and some were rejected, the match comprised 22 Battles, 12 of which were won by Mr Cain and 10 by Mr Johnson. This was a return match for one that had been fought in Oxford the previous year.
The following year in March, a team of bird owners from the City of Bath fought a team from the City of Bristol, showing 41 cocks a side for 6 Guineas and 100 for the main, the match was won by Bath by 6 or 7 Battles.
In 1735 In the “City of Bath, on the first Tuesday in May Mr Segar fought Mr Ball showing as they had at a previous match at Meere in March, 41 cocks a side for 6 guineas and 100, in this match, there were 24 battles 16 of which were won by Mr Segar and 8 by Mr Ball”
In May 1744, Champney Esq. fought the gentlemen of Bristol and Wells, showing forty-one cocks on each side, for ten Guineas a battle and a hundred the main. The main consisted of twenty-eight battles, each side winning fourteen, which rendered it a draw.
In August 1761, an advert appeared in the chronicle “A COCK-MATCH TO be Fought at Mr Charles Smith's, at the Sign of the Coach, in the Parish of Twerton, in the County of Somerset, (one Mile from Bath) between the Gentlemen of Somerset-shire and the Gentlemen of Gloucestershire flew and weigh 31 Cocks each side in the Main, for Four Guineas a Battle, and Twenty Guineas the odd Battle; and 15 Cocks for Bye-Battles.— To weigh the 10th Day of August, and fight the three following Days.”
In 1771 the Bath Chronicle, after decrying petty horse races and boxing matches, observed that “Petty cock-matches are no less than the others the source of vice, profaneness, and immorality”
1772 The Rev. James Woodforde recorded that his “Brother John set forth this morning for
Bath to a Cock Match.” And later, “Brother John returned this evening and supped etc. at Parsonage; he says that he has won fifty Pounds at Bath.”
As the century progressed, cockfighting fell out of fashion, and major matches in the city became less frequent. However, as late as 1798, Somerset and Wiltshire breeders fought a two-day match near Grosvenor Gardens.
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