Millwall brick
Encyclopedia
A Millwall brick is an improvised weapon made of a manipulated newspaper
. It was named for supporters of Millwall F.C.
, who had a stereotype
d reputation for football hooliganism
. The Millwall brick was allegedly used as a stealth weapon at football matches in England
during the 1960s and 1970s. The weapon's popularity appears to have been due to the wide availability of newspapers, and due to the ease of its construction.
at matches in England
— police began confiscating any objects that could be used as weapons. These items included steel combs, pens, beermat
s, Polo mints
, shoelaces
and boots. However, fans were still permitted to bring in newspapers. Larger newspapers such as The Guardian
or The Financial Times work best for a Millwall brick, and the police looked with suspicion at working class
football fans who carried such newspapers. Because of their more innocent appearance, tabloid newspapers became the newspapers of choice for Millwall bricks. The book Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible describes the use of Millwall bricks by British football hooligans in the late 1960s: "Newspapers were rolled up tightly to form the so-called Millwall Brick and another trick was to make a knuckleduster out of pennies held in place by a wrapped around paper. You could hardly be pulled up for having a bit of loose change in your pocket and a Daily Mirror under your arm." The book Skinhead says, "The Millwall brick, for example, was a newspaper folded again and again and squashed together to form a cosh."
In 1994, martial artist Robert Luis Rivera used principles from the Kampilan Kali
martial arts style to devise a curriculum for his weapons class that included using a newspaper as a weapon. This was not limited to just a newspaper. Rivera also used pens, combs, brushes, phones, umbrellas and anything he could get his hands on. Rivera teaches the weapons are extensions of the hands and your empty hands skills must be perfected. In Shotokan Karate, Shihan
Craig Finch (6th Dan) has analysed the Millwall brick in order to teach better unarmed defence against it.
or a waddy
.
The newspaper sheets can first be soaked with a liquid to add weight. The blunt end can be wrapped with a shoelace or leather. The ends can be taped together and a string attached to the handle, enabling the user to swing the brick, similar to a meteor hammer
. A pencil, pen, or large nail can be driven from the first interior side near the middle perpendicularly through the first end so that that head of the nail rests against the first interior side. The nail may be secured in place by bringing the ends towards and adjacent to each other, effectively forming a crude nail bat.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
. It was named for supporters of Millwall F.C.
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
, who had a stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
d reputation for football hooliganism
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
. The Millwall brick was allegedly used as a stealth weapon at football matches in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the 1960s and 1970s. The weapon's popularity appears to have been due to the wide availability of newspapers, and due to the ease of its construction.
History
In the late 1960s — in response to football hooliganismFootball hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
at matches in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
— police began confiscating any objects that could be used as weapons. These items included steel combs, pens, beermat
Beermat
A coaster, drink coaster, beverage coaster, or beermat, is used to rest beverages upon. The main purpose is to protect the surface of a table or any other surface where the user might place their beverage....
s, Polo mints
Polo (mint)
Polos are a brand of sweets whose defining feature is the hole in the middle. The peppermint flavoured polo was first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948 by employee John Bargewell at the Rowntree's Factory, York, a range of flavours followed...
, shoelaces
Shoelaces
Shoelaces, which are also called shoe-strings, shoe laces, or boot laces, are a system commonly used to secure shoes, boots and other footwear. They typically consist of a pair of strings or cords, one for each shoe, finished off at both ends with stiff sections, known as aglets...
and boots. However, fans were still permitted to bring in newspapers. Larger newspapers such as The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
or The Financial Times work best for a Millwall brick, and the police looked with suspicion at working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
football fans who carried such newspapers. Because of their more innocent appearance, tabloid newspapers became the newspapers of choice for Millwall bricks. The book Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible describes the use of Millwall bricks by British football hooligans in the late 1960s: "Newspapers were rolled up tightly to form the so-called Millwall Brick and another trick was to make a knuckleduster out of pennies held in place by a wrapped around paper. You could hardly be pulled up for having a bit of loose change in your pocket and a Daily Mirror under your arm." The book Skinhead says, "The Millwall brick, for example, was a newspaper folded again and again and squashed together to form a cosh."
In 1994, martial artist Robert Luis Rivera used principles from the Kampilan Kali
Kampilan
The kampílan is a type of single-edged long sword of the Filipino people. Being ancient origin, it has been used in the Philippine islands of Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon for centuries, used for head-chopping....
martial arts style to devise a curriculum for his weapons class that included using a newspaper as a weapon. This was not limited to just a newspaper. Rivera also used pens, combs, brushes, phones, umbrellas and anything he could get his hands on. Rivera teaches the weapons are extensions of the hands and your empty hands skills must be perfected. In Shotokan Karate, Shihan
Shihan
- Title of "Master" is a Japanese Honorific Title, Expert License Certification used in Japanese martial arts for Master Level Instructors. The award of the Expert License Certification is if designated by the qualification by virtue of endorsement by the [A] Association of Chief Instructors or [B]...
Craig Finch (6th Dan) has analysed the Millwall brick in order to teach better unarmed defence against it.
Design
A Millwall brick is constructed from one or more newspaper sheets rolled and folded to create a handle (a haft) and a rounded head at the fold. The Millwall brick becomes harder as more newspaper sheets are stacked. The Millwall brick is used similarly to a shillelaghShillelagh (club)
A shillelagh is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top, that is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.- Construction :...
or a waddy
Waddy
A Waddy, nulla nulla or hunting stick is an Australian Aboriginal war club. The former name comes from the Dharuk Aborigines of Port Jackson, Sydney....
.
The newspaper sheets can first be soaked with a liquid to add weight. The blunt end can be wrapped with a shoelace or leather. The ends can be taped together and a string attached to the handle, enabling the user to swing the brick, similar to a meteor hammer
Meteor hammer
The meteor hammer , often referred to simply as meteor, is an ancient Chinese weapon, consisting at its most basic level of two weights connected by a rope or chain. One of the flexible or 'soft' weapons, it is referred to by many different names worldwide, dependent upon region, construction and...
. A pencil, pen, or large nail can be driven from the first interior side near the middle perpendicularly through the first end so that that head of the nail rests against the first interior side. The nail may be secured in place by bringing the ends towards and adjacent to each other, effectively forming a crude nail bat.
Cultural references
- The term "Millwall brick" appeared in a 2001 TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
column about the September 11, 2001 attacksSeptember 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, in which writer Mick HumeMick HumeMick Hume is a British journalist and former organiser of the defunct Revolutionary Communist Party. He was raised in Woking and educated at Manchester University where he read American Studies...
sarcasticallySarcasmSarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...
proposed that airlines get rid of newspapers since "football hooligans used to fold them into something called a Millwall Brick." - The Millwall brick was mentioned in a 2004 SpikedSpiked (magazine)Spiked is a British Internet magazine focusing on politics, culture and society from a humanist and libertarian viewpoint.- Editors and contributors :...
column about Britain's knife culture. - A 2004 column in the New York Sports ExpressNew York Sports ExpressThe New York Sports Express, sometimes abbreviated NYSX, was a free publication distributed from April 2003 to July 2004 as a sister paper to the New York Press. The New York City, USA publication was designed to take an entertaining look at topical sports stories, in contrast to most sports...
(NYSX) includes an expression of hope that Millwall F.C.Millwall F.C.Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
would "upset Manchester United and put the infamous Millwall Brick inside the famous FA Cup." - A skinhead reggaeReggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
zineZineA zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
series, Millwall Brick, addressed topics such as the film The Harder They ComeThe Harder They ComeThe Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell.The film stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based on Rhyging, a real-life Jamaican criminal who achieved fame in the 1940s...
, Motown RecordsMotown RecordsMotown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
and football. - The 1994 CD Chello, by Irish pop/rock band BlinkBlink (band)Blink is a pop/rock band from Ireland They are noted for their mixture of humour and melancholy. They have released three albums to date: A Map Of the Universe by Blink , The End Is High and Deep Inside The Sound Of Sadness . "A Map of the Universe by Blink" was a top ten album...
includes the song, "Millwall Brick Mix". - In 1995, guitarists Doug AldrichDoug AldrichDoug Aldrich , is a Los Angeles-based hard rock guitarist, since 2003 a member of Whitesnake. He founded the band Burning Rain with Keith St.John in 1998 and has played previously with the bands Dio, Lion, Hurricane, House of Lords, and Bad Moon Rising...
and his hard rock band Bad Moon Rising released an extended playExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
CD entitled Millwall Brick. - In the film The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne (Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
) fashioned a similar weapon out of a magazine.
See also
- Millwall BushwackersMillwall BushwackersThe Millwall Bushwackers are a hooligan firm associated with Millwall F.C..-Background:The original firm associated with Millwall was known as F-Troop....
- ClubsClub (weapon)A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....
- Personal weapons
- Self defense
- Street fightingStreet fightingStreet fighting is a colloquial term used to denote unsanctioned, illegal in some countries, hand-to-hand fighting in public places, between individuals or groups of people....