Friday, March 3, 2006

100 years ago

Sentence was passed on James Decco, a 48-year-old strong man who was charged with living on the earnings of a young Liverpool girl, Sybil Ingram, said to be aged 16. Sybil Ingram, seeing an advertisement and being "stage-struck," communicated with Decco at New Brighton, where he had a sort of training school for the stage. To some degree the girl was trained for the stage, appearing occasionally as "Sybil Venus," and being regarded as a "strong girl." Sybil, in the witness box, said that the prisoner used to slap her face if she did not practice her acrobatic performance. The bench addressing Decco said: "You seem to be a man who gets hold of young girls and ruins them. What has become of other girls heaven only knows. You are an evil influence. For living on the girl you will have three months hard labour, and for ill-treating her another month." Cries of "Hear, hear!" from the back of the court greeted this sentence.

50 years ago

A Timing Clock electrically-operated both at the starting gate and the finishing post, which had been built into the tower in the cheap ring and would be visible to all race goers, was one of many improvements to be carried out on Knavesmire in readiness for the York May meeting. This would be only the second clock of its type in use in the British Isles. The clock was started by a wire at the start of a race and the clock stopped when the winner broke a ray on passing the winning post. The time of every race would be recorded for race goers to see, and they could make their own notes, for on the racing cards the course record for each event would be printed. The time would also be broadcast immediately after a race.

25 years ago

The Royal Station Hotel, York, celebrated Shrove Tuesday in the traditional way by holding its first pancake race. Four of the hotel's employees took on four York City players, and although the hotel staff had the edge when it came to tossing the pancakes, the faster legs of the footballers gave them victory. Then they celebrated in style, toasting their victory with a glass of champagne from the hotel's cellar. But the four footballers -- John Byrne, Terry Eccles, Jimmy Walsh and Ian McDonald - had no time to linger over their bubbly. Soon afterwards it was back to Bootham Crescent to train for that evening's game against Hull City Reserves. The pancakes were prepared in the hotel kitchens, but a breathless chef, Mark Richardson, assured onlookers afterwards that they were not going to be part of the day's menu.

Updated: 16:20 Thursday, March 02, 2006