Making of a monster hoax
QUESTION R. K. Wilson’s famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster appeared in the Daily Mail in 1934. How was this elaborate hoax achieved? There have been sightings of the Loch Ness Monster dating back to AD 565, when St Columba reported seeing the monster while he was swimming.
In the 1870s, Dr D. Mackenzie of Balnain said he saw an object ‘wriggling and churning up the water’.
Modern interest in the monster was sparked by a sighting on July 22, 1933, when George Spicer and his wife saw ‘a most extraordinary form of animal’ cross the road in front of their car.
That year, the Daily Mail hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell to find the beast. Unable to do so, he soon joined with his son Ian and model- maker Christian Spurling to create their own monster, using a 14 in toy submarine bought at Woolworths in richmond.
It took Spurling a week to build up layers of plastic wood on the conning tower into a head and neck, which he painted grey.
The Wetheralls took the contraption to Loch Ness and photographed it in a quiet bay, then sank the evidence in the mud at the edge of the lake.
They enlisted an upright and respected citizen, surgeon robert Kenneth Wilson, to release the image and authenticate the story in April 1934. The picture caused a sensation and it was not until 1994 that Spurling admitted creating the fake monster.
There continue to be reported sightings of the monster, which fuel the local tourism trade to the tune of an estimated £30 million a year. recently, there was even a satellite picture.
The best scientific research is at the Loch Ness centre and exhibition in the village of Drumnadrochit close to the western shore of the loch.
Peter Dace, Cuffley, Herts. QUESTION Why is lacrosse played by men in the U.S. and women in Britain? WoMeN’S and men’s lacrosse are different games. The women’s sport is played in teams of 12, as opposed to the men’s ten. Women’s lacrosse is non-contact. Men’s is full contact: players wear helmets and padding and dislodge the ball from their opponents’ ‘cradle’ by striking the stick or hand.
The modern men’s game was developed in the U.S.; the women’s game in Britain.
Lacrosse was originally a Native American game. The name comes from the French jeu de la crosse — ‘game of the hooked sticks’.
Today’s lacrosse sticks have a triangular head with a loose net to cradle the ball. The game was used by the Indians to settle disputes between tribes, celebrate festivals and train men for war. The Iroquois called it Tewaarathon, Little Brother of War.
Teams would number hundreds of players and the field of play had no boundaries. Goals, usually a large tree or rock, could be miles apart and games would last for days.
Its association with girls’ public schools began after Dame Louisa Lumsden and Dame Frances Dove, the first two headmistresses of St Leonards School at St Andrews, Fife, watched a men’s match during a visit to Canada in 1884.
In 1890 they drew up the women’s noncontact rules. however, the players are no shrinking violets: the ball is won by knocking the ball from the opponent’s cradle with a stick.
eye guards and gum shields are de rigueur. The stick work is more skilful than the men’s game.
Lacrosse has become a staple of public school girl life and there are an estimated 30,000 players.
Competition with the traditional sports of rugby, football, cricket and hockey mean it is rarely played in British boys’ schools.
There are 2,000 adult players in the UK and a safer form of the game called pop lacrosse is played in some state schools.
Jennifer Downes, Malvern, Worcs. QUESTION How is the game The Archdeacon’s Cat played? FUrTher to the earlier answer, it features in the 1970 film Scrooge, where Albert Finney is taken to his nephew Fred’s house where he and his friends, played by a host of well-known British actors, are playing a game called The Minister’s Cat.
They sit in a circle and take turns to describe the cat in an A-Z style while keeping a clapping rhythm. Gordon Jackson, famous as hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs, makes a mistake and is out.
Keith Greenberg, London N11.