1878-1900
The winter of 1878/79 was a cold one; during December and January 21-year-old Fish Smart, a nephew of Gutta Percha See and Turkey Smart’s wife, notched up victories at Welney, Mepal, Ely, Bluntisham, Upwell, Wormegay, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Swavesey and Thorney. At Spalding there was a dead heat in the final between Fish Smart and Tom Watkinson and there was a defeat by Albert Dewsberry of Coveney in a final at Peterborough.
Although speed skating was practised in other parts of the country, fenmen with their unique style, and combination of stamina and speed, were the acknowledged masters. Lancashire sent three of their top skaters, G. Willcocks and the Boydells, to the Swavesey match in January 1879. All three were defeated in the first two rounds, with veteran Turkey Smart beating G. Willcocks by 200 yards in the first round. Afterwards one of the Lancashire skaters said: "We are the best men in our parts, but we run. These fenmen flee".
On Saturday 1 February 1879 a number of the great and the good of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire met in the Guildhall, Cambridge, to set up the National Skating Association, with the aim of controlling the sport of fen skating. The founding committee consisted of several landowners, a vicar, a fellow of Trinity College, a magistrate, two Members of Parliament, the mayor of Cambridge, the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridge, journalist James Drake Digby, the president of Cambridge University Skating Club, and Neville Goodman, a fellow of Peterhouse College (and son of Potto Brown’s milling partner, Joseph Goodman).
The next two winters, 1879/80 and 1880/81, were good skating winters. The newly-formed National Skating Association held their first one-and-a-half-mile British professional championship at Thorney in December 1879. There was a field of 32, including former champions Turkey Smart and Tom Watkinson. Fish Smart won, beating Knocker Carter of Welney in the final. His reward was a badge, a sash and a cash prize, given as an annual salary in instalments in order to encourage the champion to "keep himself temperate". The National Skating Association had also established an amateur championship, which was held for the first time at Welsh Harp, London, in January 1880, and won by Frederick Norman, a farmer’s son from Willingham. The professionals were labourers who skated for cash prizes; the amateurs were gentlemen who skated a bit slower for trophies.
Fish Smart remained unbeatable in the Fens during 1879/80 and 1880/81. He suffered one defeat in Lancashire when he skated on Carr Mill Dam against Jack Hill of Billinge, but got his revenge in a return match at Welney. Fish Smart’s nearest rivals during those two winters were his younger brother Jarman Smart and Albert Dewsberry. In 1880/81 he successfully defended his title at Crowland, beating Albert Dewsberry in the final.
Fish Smart won his third and final championship in January 1887 at Swavesey, beating his cousin Isaac See (the younger son of Gutta Percha See) in the final. In the intervening years there had been some short frosts, but the National Skating Association had not managed to arrange a meeting. They had taken Fish Smart to Holland for an international race in January 1885; he was beaten in the first round by Benedict Kingma. Two amateurs, Charles Goodman Tebbutt and S Burlingham fared little better. A trip to Holland two years later was more successful. George See (Gutta Percha See’s eldest son) and James Smart (Fish Smart’s youngest brother) set up world records for 3100 m and 1 mile in friendly matches, and Tebbutt won an amateur race. The following year, 1887, James Smart and George See returned to Holland, with Smart winning an international race over 2 miles at Amsterdam.
James Smart took the British professional title from his older brother Fish Smart at Lingay Fen in January 1889 and dominated fen skating for the next few years. He won the Dutch 1 mile championship in 1890/91 before successfully defending his British title. Two years later he did not compete in the British professional championship after falling out with the National Skating Association (George See won that year), but he regained his title in 1894/95. Several mild winters followed and when the championship was next held, at Littleport in February 1900, it was won by Fred Ward of Tydd Fen. That year, for the first time, the amateur championship was won in a faster time than the professional.
Littleport had become an important centre for skating in last decade of the nineteenth century, when Thomas Peacock (owner of the Hope Brothers factory), leased a piece of ground by the railway line, embanked it, and flooded it to form a skating ground known as the Moors.
Lincolnshire skaters, unhappy that the National Skating Association was holding so many matches in the southern Fens or outside the Fens, formed their own association in 1890 and held amateur championships at Vernatt’s Drain and Cowbit Wash.
Read more about this topic: Fen Skating