Take aim at an old prize

QUESTION What is the oldest sporting trophy that is still contested?

The Antient Scorton Silver Arrow is the world’s longest- established and oldest recorded sporting event, dating back to 1673. The silver arrow awarded to its winner is the oldest prize.

The first meeting was held on May 14, 1673, to maintain the art of target archery, a skill in decline after the english Civil War.

Twenty-two archers competed in that event and the prize was a silver arrow provided by henry Calverley, MP for Northallerton, who was also the first archer to claim the prize. The event proved so successful that the Society of Archers was formed to hold the event annually.

The competition remains open to any ‘Gentleman Archer aged over 21 shooting in the Long Bow or any other bare bow’ and, since 1947, the recurve bow, which was allowed to enter due to timber shortage and rationing after the war. Modern compound bows are not permitted.

Participants shoot at colour targets at a range of 100 yards. The winner is the first to hit the three-inch centre black spot. he becomes Captain of the Arrow and takes on the responsibility of arranging the next year’s meeting, assisted by a lieutenant.

The winner is presented with a replica of the original silver arrow to keep for a year. The original silver arrow is held at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.

Dan Crowther, Leeds. The oldest original trophy/ cup still contested is the America’s Cup. Sailors raced yachts hoping to win the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Trophy. It was renamed the America’s Cup after America, the first yacht to win it in 1851, in a race around the Isle of Wight.

The cup was given to the owners of America who, in 1857, donated it to the New York Yacht Club, to be held until a challenger could wrest it from their grasp. That didn’t happen until 1983 when the Royal Perth Yacht Club won and became the cup’s second owners.

It’s one of the hardest trophies in sport to win, requiring a high level of sailing skill, fundraising ability, yacht design acumen and more.

Over the years, clubs from only four Noble tradition: Competitive archery dates back to 1673 countries have won it, but the New York Club has been the most successful.

James Brown, Hawick, Scottish Borders.

QUESTION Where does the derogatory term ‘sledging’, frequently used in international cricket, originate from? When was it first used in this context?

This term, describing the verbal abuse directed at an opposing player to break his concentration or intimidate him, first appeared in the Seventies in Australia.

Its origin is uncertain. Some believe it’s derived from the phrase ‘as subtle as a sledgehammer’; others maintain it owed its origin to soul singer Percy Sledge, whose song When A Man Loves A Woman was popular in Australia.

Aussie spinner Kerry O’Keefe linked the two in his biography, According To Skull. he claimed it came about at a barbecue in Adelaide in the early Seventies, during which a member of a team ‘made inappropriate comments to a lady’ and was ruled out of order by John Benaud, Ritchie Benaud’s cricket-coach brother.

Benaud added that the transgressor’s outburst was as ‘subtle as a sledgehammer’, and he momentarily became known as ‘Percy Sledgehammer’. The ‘Percy’ soon disappeared and for the remainder of the season anyone who used over-the-top language was known as a ‘sledge’.

My favourite sledge was medium-quick england bowler James Ormond’s reply to Mark Waugh, brother of Australia captain Steve, when coming out to bat at the Oval in 2001.

On Ormond’s arrival at the crease, Waugh said: ‘Look who it is. Mate, what are you doing here? There’s no way you’re good e enough to play for england.’ To which Ormond replied: ‘Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my family.’

John Kay, Leamington Spa, Warwicks.

QUESTION My mum’s maiden name was Murgatroyd.

What is its origin?

This is a Yorkshire surname derived from a dwelling. Murgatroyd house stood in Warley Town, near halifax, at least as early as 1379, when John de Morgateroid was appointed Constable for the township.

The house was rebuilt by James Murgatroyd, a wealthy yeoman clothier reputed to be worth £2,000 a year, in the 1630s.

This Murgatroyd was responsible for building many fine local buildings, including Kershaw house at Luddenden Foot, Long Can in Ovenden and east Riddlesden hall, now a National Trust property, near Keighley.

Murgatroyd i tself was inherited by James’s grand-daughter, Susan, whose husband, James Oates, renamed the property The hollins. This name still exists, but the original house was replaced by an early Victorian mansion.

Reaney and Wilson, in A Dictionary Of english Surnames, say of Murgatroyd: ‘ From a lost Yorkshire place name Margaret’s clearing’, but most Murgatroyd researchers believe this to be incorrect; it’s now thought to derive from the compound moor-gate-royd meaning ‘the clearing at the gate of [on the road to] the moor’.

The physical location of Murgatroyd — on the slopes below highroad Well Moor — supports this derivation.

Mrs T. M. Leeves (nee Murgatroyd), Lincoln.

QUESTION On BBC2’s Newsnight, Ken Livingstone claimed the CIA once sank in the Thames a ship carrying a consignment of old London buses bound for Cuba. Is this true?

Further to earlier answers, at the time (1964) I was a radio officer aboard a British-registered freighter chartered by the Cuban government on which we carried many different types of cargo.

Our ship was the Cedar hill, built in Montreal during the early part of World War II to be used in Atlantic convoys — and not the most comfortable ship I was ever on. While ashore in havana, it seemed we British were the bees-knees and it was a while before we realised why.

It was the import of Leyland buses and it was amazing to see brand new Leyland single-deckers cruising among the rusting old American cars. Nearly all the buses were packed with people going about their business. These vehicles were popular. We did learn one shipment had been lost, but it was a long time before we found out how.

Alan Huddart, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset.

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