Beighton Cup
Encyclopedia
Beighton Cup is a field hockey
tournament. Instituted in 1895
, it is organised by Bengal Hockey Association and is usually held on the Mohun Bagan ground
on the Maidan
in Kolkata
(earlier called Calcutta) in India
. The Beighton Cup was presented by T.D. Beighton, Legal Remembrancer of the Government of Bengal, and was run initially by the Indian Football Association
. The Calcutta Hockey League took off in 1905.
British
officers popularised the game amongst soldiers in India; hockey, as an organised sport, originated in Kolkata. The Anglo-Indian
clubs of the time, most significantly, the Calcutta Naval Volunteers Club, now the Calcutta Rangers Club deserve a big share of the credit. Not only did Rangers Club win the Beighton Cup nine times, including in its inaugural year, it was directly responsible for two of the country's Olympic
gold medals. When the Indian Olympic Committee did not have the funds to send the Indian team in 1932 and 1936, it was the generosity of the Rangers Club, rich with funds from its four-times-a-year sweepstakes, that ensured that the team set sail for Los Angeles and Berlin.
Some credit for popularising the game in India goes to the Irish Christian Brothers. Many of them were so skillful that they would have walked into the Indian team had it not been for their vocation. However, they passed on their skills to the boys who studied in the many schools that they ran, up in the hills and on the plains. St. James' School won the Beighton Cup way back in 1900. In the 1940s and 1950s, Bengal had strong teams in Kolkata such as Customs and Port Commissioners, and Bengal-Nagpur Railway in Kharagpur
. It went on to win the 1952 national hockey championship held in Kolkata, defeating Punjab.
remembers his Beighton Cup debut. He says, “In my opinion it is perhaps the best organised hockey event in the country. Kolkata is indeed lucky that it has at least three or four first class hockey grounds on the maidan, and this is a great advantage to run a tournament on schedule. Instituted in 1895, this tournament has had a non-stop run. World Wars I
and II
did not affect the tournament. Threats of Japanese
bombs and actual bombings in Kolkata while the hockey season was on also did not prevent the tournament from being held. That being said, it is sad to think that the tournament had to yield to the communal frenzy which gripped the nation in 1946-47.”
He further says, “If anybody asked me which was the best match that I played in, I will unhesitatingly say that it was the 1933 Beighton Cup final between Calcutta Customs and Jhansi Heroes. Calcutta Customs was a great side those days; they had Shaukat Ali, Asad Ali, Claude Deefholts, Seaman, Mohsin, and many others who were then in the first flight of Indian hockey. I had a very young side. Besides my brother Roop Singh, and Ismail, who played for the Great Indian Peninsular Railway in Mumbai, I had no other really great player in the team. But I had a team which was determined to do or die. It was a great match, full of thrills, and it was just opportunism that gave us the victory. Customs were pressing hard and our goal was at their mercy. Suddenly I broke through and from midfield gave a long through pass to Ismail, who ran with Jesse Owens
' speed half the length of the ground. A misunderstanding occurred between the Customs left-half and the goalkeeper, and Ismail, taking every advantage of it, cut through and netted the only goal of the match. We felt very proud of our triumph.”
for the Amsterdam Games
was selected in Kolkata after the 1928 nationals.
Barry O'Brien gives a vivid description of the game in Calcutta in olden days. Crowds of up to 10,000 were common at a top game. The ladies with their parasols, the men with their Panama hat
s and solar topees
, graced the occasion. A band played at half-time and good-natured barracking and much laughter could be heard. When Claudius
took the ball from off his goal-line, they would comment, Eh-ta Claudius or shout, Hail Claudius, as if saluting a Roman Senator.
Twenty-seven Olympic gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal ~ that is what Bengal's hockey can boast of. However, all that is past history and Kolkata no more boats of a hockey Olympian. Despite its pioneering role in the history of Indian hockey, Kolkata is the only major metropolis in India without an artificial turf. “How can you hope to produce international class players if you cannot give the players astroturf to play on?” asks Gurbux Singh
, secretary of the Bengal Hockey Association. Leslie Claudius
agreed that the absence of astroturf is responsible for this decline, but added: “Ours was a different era. We were successful, so the enthusiasm for the game was naturally high. How can you have that today? Even the educational institutions are not interested in hockey nowadays. But you can’t blame them. Young people don't find hockey exciting enough. Maybe if we can give them astroturf, the fast surface can lure them back into the game.”
was the biggest name in Kolkata hockey — he played for Customs in Kolkata, and won 4 Olympic medals from 1948-1960 (3 gold, 1 silver).
Trevor Vanderputt, a former Rangers captain and Bengal selector, went on to become the Director of Coaching in Australia; Pat Jansen, an inside-left with a deadly reverse flick, played for India in the 1948 Olympics, before he immigrated to Australia. There was the brilliant BNR trio of Carl Tapsell, Dicky Carr and Joe Gallibardy, all great Olympians. While Carr dazzled with his stickwork, Gallibardy and Tapsell were penalty-corner pioneers Gallibardy being the first player ever to push the ball in rather than hit it, and Tapsell the first penalty-corner goal-scoring specialist in the game. Gallibardy, who immigrated to Spain
, lived with the regret of missing out on another gold in 1948 when at his peak.
There was the outstanding Keshav Dutt
at centre-half, also a classy badminton
player. 1968 captain Gurbux Singh
, an Aligarh University blue, has served the game for close to five decades. In spite of an in-form Vece Paes
, the hugely gifted Ashok Kumar
and the legendary Aussie Ric Charlesworth, on the field Gurbux was everyone's choice for Man of the Match; and he was 40 at the time. Garney Nyss, who according to Dhyan Chand was a player from heaven, could well have made it to four Olympics. He didn't make it to even one - twice thanks to the second World War, once due to an injury, and once courtesy Pankaj Gupta
. While Nyss never forgave Gupta for keeping him out of the team, there were many who called Gupta “Mr Hockey”. A man who loved life and a drop of whisky, he gave his life for the game, as a manager, administrator and even a referee.
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
tournament. Instituted in 1895
1895 in sports
-American football:College championship* College football national championship – Penn Quakers and Yale Bulldogs Events* 3 September – the earliest known professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania where Latrobe YMCA defeats the Jeannette Athletic Club 12–0.-Association...
, it is organised by Bengal Hockey Association and is usually held on the Mohun Bagan ground
Mohun Bagan Ground
Mohun Bagan Ground is first ground of the Mohun Bagan Club was inside the famous marble palace, owned by Kirti Mitra of the Mitra family, known as Mohun Bagan Villa. It was situated at Fariapukur street of north Kolkata...
on the Maidan
Maidan (Kolkata)
The Maidan is the largest urban park in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a vast stretch of field and home to numerous play grounds, including the famous cricketing venue Eden Gardens, several football stadia, and Kolkata Race Course. Maidan is dotted with several statues and...
in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(earlier called Calcutta) in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The Beighton Cup was presented by T.D. Beighton, Legal Remembrancer of the Government of Bengal, and was run initially by the Indian Football Association
Indian Football Association
The Indian Football Association , [abbreviated as IFA] is the organization that administers association football in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the oldest Football Association in India and was founded in 1893. Amongst the founders was former England international Elphinstone Jackson....
. The Calcutta Hockey League took off in 1905.
British
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
officers popularised the game amongst soldiers in India; hockey, as an organised sport, originated in Kolkata. The Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
clubs of the time, most significantly, the Calcutta Naval Volunteers Club, now the Calcutta Rangers Club deserve a big share of the credit. Not only did Rangers Club win the Beighton Cup nine times, including in its inaugural year, it was directly responsible for two of the country's Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
gold medals. When the Indian Olympic Committee did not have the funds to send the Indian team in 1932 and 1936, it was the generosity of the Rangers Club, rich with funds from its four-times-a-year sweepstakes, that ensured that the team set sail for Los Angeles and Berlin.
Some credit for popularising the game in India goes to the Irish Christian Brothers. Many of them were so skillful that they would have walked into the Indian team had it not been for their vocation. However, they passed on their skills to the boys who studied in the many schools that they ran, up in the hills and on the plains. St. James' School won the Beighton Cup way back in 1900. In the 1940s and 1950s, Bengal had strong teams in Kolkata such as Customs and Port Commissioners, and Bengal-Nagpur Railway in Kharagpur
Kharagpur
Kharagpur is an industrial city in India. It is located in the Midnapore West district of the state of West Bengal.Kharagpur was chosen as the location of the first campus of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology . The IITs are the premier technical education institutes in India and...
. It went on to win the 1952 national hockey championship held in Kolkata, defeating Punjab.
Dhyan Chand remembers
In his autobiography Goal!, the legendray Dhyan ChandDhyan Chand
Dhyan Chand ; born August 29, 1905 in Allahabad, United Provinces, British India. – Died:December 3, 1979), was an Indian field hockey player, regarded as one of the greatest field hockey players of all time...
remembers his Beighton Cup debut. He says, “In my opinion it is perhaps the best organised hockey event in the country. Kolkata is indeed lucky that it has at least three or four first class hockey grounds on the maidan, and this is a great advantage to run a tournament on schedule. Instituted in 1895, this tournament has had a non-stop run. World Wars I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
did not affect the tournament. Threats of Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
bombs and actual bombings in Kolkata while the hockey season was on also did not prevent the tournament from being held. That being said, it is sad to think that the tournament had to yield to the communal frenzy which gripped the nation in 1946-47.”
He further says, “If anybody asked me which was the best match that I played in, I will unhesitatingly say that it was the 1933 Beighton Cup final between Calcutta Customs and Jhansi Heroes. Calcutta Customs was a great side those days; they had Shaukat Ali, Asad Ali, Claude Deefholts, Seaman, Mohsin, and many others who were then in the first flight of Indian hockey. I had a very young side. Besides my brother Roop Singh, and Ismail, who played for the Great Indian Peninsular Railway in Mumbai, I had no other really great player in the team. But I had a team which was determined to do or die. It was a great match, full of thrills, and it was just opportunism that gave us the victory. Customs were pressing hard and our goal was at their mercy. Suddenly I broke through and from midfield gave a long through pass to Ismail, who ran with Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
' speed half the length of the ground. A misunderstanding occurred between the Customs left-half and the goalkeeper, and Ismail, taking every advantage of it, cut through and netted the only goal of the match. We felt very proud of our triumph.”
Hockey in Kolkata
Apart from the Beighton Cup, Kolkata had many firsts in hockey to its credit. The first hockey association in India was formed in 1908 — the Bengal Hockey Association. The first national hockey championship of India was held in 1928. It was called the inter-provincials, with 5 provinces of undivided India participating. The first Indian Olympic teamIndia national field hockey team
The India national field hockey team is the national men's team representing field hockey in India. It is the first non-European team to be a part of the International Hockey Federation....
for the Amsterdam Games
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...
was selected in Kolkata after the 1928 nationals.
Barry O'Brien gives a vivid description of the game in Calcutta in olden days. Crowds of up to 10,000 were common at a top game. The ladies with their parasols, the men with their Panama hat
Panama hat
A Panama hat is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant...
s and solar topees
Pith helmet
The pith helmet is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith...
, graced the occasion. A band played at half-time and good-natured barracking and much laughter could be heard. When Claudius
Leslie Claudius
Leslie Walter Claudius was an Indian field hockey player, of Anglo-Indian descent. In 1971 he was awarded the Padma Shri...
took the ball from off his goal-line, they would comment, Eh-ta Claudius or shout, Hail Claudius, as if saluting a Roman Senator.
Twenty-seven Olympic gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal ~ that is what Bengal's hockey can boast of. However, all that is past history and Kolkata no more boats of a hockey Olympian. Despite its pioneering role in the history of Indian hockey, Kolkata is the only major metropolis in India without an artificial turf. “How can you hope to produce international class players if you cannot give the players astroturf to play on?” asks Gurbux Singh
Gurbux Singh
Gurbux Singh is a former field hockey player from India who was a member of the India national field hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Four years later he captured the bronze...
, secretary of the Bengal Hockey Association. Leslie Claudius
Leslie Claudius
Leslie Walter Claudius was an Indian field hockey player, of Anglo-Indian descent. In 1971 he was awarded the Padma Shri...
agreed that the absence of astroturf is responsible for this decline, but added: “Ours was a different era. We were successful, so the enthusiasm for the game was naturally high. How can you have that today? Even the educational institutions are not interested in hockey nowadays. But you can’t blame them. Young people don't find hockey exciting enough. Maybe if we can give them astroturf, the fast surface can lure them back into the game.”
Big names
Leslie ClaudiusLeslie Claudius
Leslie Walter Claudius was an Indian field hockey player, of Anglo-Indian descent. In 1971 he was awarded the Padma Shri...
was the biggest name in Kolkata hockey — he played for Customs in Kolkata, and won 4 Olympic medals from 1948-1960 (3 gold, 1 silver).
Trevor Vanderputt, a former Rangers captain and Bengal selector, went on to become the Director of Coaching in Australia; Pat Jansen, an inside-left with a deadly reverse flick, played for India in the 1948 Olympics, before he immigrated to Australia. There was the brilliant BNR trio of Carl Tapsell, Dicky Carr and Joe Gallibardy, all great Olympians. While Carr dazzled with his stickwork, Gallibardy and Tapsell were penalty-corner pioneers Gallibardy being the first player ever to push the ball in rather than hit it, and Tapsell the first penalty-corner goal-scoring specialist in the game. Gallibardy, who immigrated to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, lived with the regret of missing out on another gold in 1948 when at his peak.
There was the outstanding Keshav Dutt
Keshav Dutt
1972 Munich Olympics Indian Olympic Hockey Team ManagerKeshav Chandra Dutt was a Indian field hockey player.-External links:*...
at centre-half, also a classy badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
player. 1968 captain Gurbux Singh
Gurbux Singh
Gurbux Singh is a former field hockey player from India who was a member of the India national field hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Four years later he captured the bronze...
, an Aligarh University blue, has served the game for close to five decades. In spite of an in-form Vece Paes
Vece Paes
Vece Paes was a former Indian hockey midfielder, and representing the Indian team in the 1972 Munich Olympics, that won the bronze medal. He is the father of India's tennis player Leander Paes. He is also a doctor in sports medicine....
, the hugely gifted Ashok Kumar
Ashok Kumar
Ashok Kumar also fondly called Dadamoni was an Indian film actor. Born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency he attained iconic status in Indian cinema...
and the legendary Aussie Ric Charlesworth, on the field Gurbux was everyone's choice for Man of the Match; and he was 40 at the time. Garney Nyss, who according to Dhyan Chand was a player from heaven, could well have made it to four Olympics. He didn't make it to even one - twice thanks to the second World War, once due to an injury, and once courtesy Pankaj Gupta
Pankaj Gupta
Pankaj Gupta was one of the earliest Indian sports administrators involved in football, hockey and cricket. However, he gave his life for hockey, as a manager, administrator, and even a referee. Many called him “Mr. Hockey”....
. While Nyss never forgave Gupta for keeping him out of the team, there were many who called Gupta “Mr Hockey”. A man who loved life and a drop of whisky, he gave his life for the game, as a manager, administrator and even a referee.