WFC in 100 Objects #18 - Doughnuts from Gymkhana

Something like this might have happened at the Watford Gymkhana - Daring!

An ongoing challenge facing clubs is making the most of their facilities to earn money outside match days in general and the football season in particular.  It would seem that this train of thought is nothing new…

In June 1927, the Watford and District Auto Club took on the West Bromwich MCC in a friendly motor-cycle football match at Vicarage Road.  The home side, victorious by a 3-0 scoreline, were presented with silver cigarette cases with gold tie pins presented to the losers. 

The event was followed by a motorcycle gymkhana that featured participants racing to eat buns suspended from the crossbar at either end of the pitch, without using their hands, whilst on their bikes. 

Whilst pausing only briefly to ponder what today’s groundsmen would make of such a practice, and more briefly still to speculate whether re-launching this event might secure a more reliable revenue stream in return for less damage to the pitch than recent arrangements with our egg-chasing tenants, the real mystery is why this source of entertainment died out in the first place.  Or perhaps I just watch the wrong TV channels?  Either way, the doughnuts make the list.

- Matt Rowson

Thanks to Matt for writing this post for our list. Here his regular blogging on BHaPPY and his bookWatford FC On This Day: Facts and Figures of every day of the Year

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