A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



is now being extended, has been very greatly 

 improved of late years, and the greens are quite 

 excellent ; the turf through the green is very 

 good, and never in the driest weather becomes 

 too hard. Ladies play over the course. The 

 Royal Worlington and Newmarket Club was 

 founded in 1893 as a proprietary club by Mr. 

 William Gardner on land owned by him near 

 Mildenhall, within three-quarters of a mile of 

 that station and seven miles from Newmarket. 



At a later date it was reconstituted as a members' 

 club; and H.M. the King (then Prince of Wales) 

 becoming president, the late Queen Victoria con- 

 sented to the club being styled ' Royal.' In 1903 

 the club acquired the course as their own property. 

 It is of only nine holes, but they are very good ; 

 the turf is excellent, as also are the greens. The 

 ground is never too soft nor too hard, and the holes 

 are very well laid out. The Cambridge Univer- 

 sity players play most of their home matches here. 



CAMP BALL 



' Camp Ball ' or ' Camping ' was a popular 

 game in East Anglia as far back as 1472. Ac- 

 cording to Moor (1823, quoted by Dr. Marshall) 

 there were various forms of the game, but in the 

 main it was a primitive form of football ; sides 

 were formed, the number on each being appar- 

 ently unlimited, and the object of the players 

 was to send the ball between the goal posts 

 of the opposing team. Each team defended two 

 goals placed ten or fifteen yards apart. The game 

 was played either with a ball about the size of a 

 cricket ball ; with a large football, in which case 



it was called ' kicking camp ' ; or, if shoes were 

 worn by the players, ' savage camp,' a name it 

 appears to have well deserved. The account of 

 camping given by Mr. W. A. Dutt 1 shows that 

 the game more nearly resembles a free fight than 

 anything else. He refers to a match played 

 between Norfolk and Suffolk on Diss Common, 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century ; 

 each team consisted of 300 men. Suffolk won 

 ' after 1 4 hours' play had converted the ground 

 into a battlefield ' ; nine deaths ensued within a 

 fortnight of the contest. 



ATHLETICS 



A very old meeting is that annually held at 

 Sudbury. Beccles and Lowestoft have annual 

 sports ; but it is at Ipswich (where the mile 

 championship of the county is decided) and Bury 

 St. Edmunds that the largest meetings are held. 

 Ipswich is the home of several well-known 

 athletes, including champions of the county, who 

 occasionally compete successfully in open races in 



the metropolitan district. The county has pro- 

 duced several famous athletes, among whom may 

 be mentioned Mr. E. H. Felling, born at Bran- 

 don. Mr. Felling, now honorary secretary of the 

 London Athletic Club, is an amateur ex-cham- 

 pion at 100 yards, and holder of several short- 

 distance ' records.' 



1 Highways and Byetvays of East Anglla. 



384 



