Some people find Christmas to be a torture.
Having to purchase all that extra nosh, booze and presents – not to mention getting all the decorations up, sorting out blown bulbs in the Christmas lights, oh and did we ensure that we bought the right kind of batteries for presents about to be dished out, otherwise there could be tears from some of the disappointed recipients?
But me, I enjoy it but then the majority of the work doesn’t end up on my plate. Hopefully the only thing ending up on my plate is the delicious Christmas lunch that someone else has had to cook and prepare!
Anyway I digress, but turning our attention briefly to torture, did you know that one of the worst torture methods in history involved being ‘licked to death’ by a goat?
This historic torture method was known as the ‘goat’s tongue’ and could leave a person in agonising pain or even result in their death.
The victim would first have their feet immersed in saltwater to make them more vulnerable to peeling and then be secured in place so that the goat could be properly deployed.
The goat would then be encouraged to lick the person’s salty feet.
The unceasing tongue lashing would then slowly but steadily wear down the skin on the soles of the feet which as you can imagine, would almost certainly have become agonising once the skin had started wearing down.
Such a torture could likely result in death should the wounds that formed on the soles of the feet became infected, a highly likely outcome with a farm animal continually licking your open wounds.
Even if you survived, imagine trying to walk on your ruined feet after your soles had been worn down to almost nothing.
This torture is believed to date back to the days of Ancient Rome.
But enough of that, let’s turn our attention to a gentle cricket match.
Unfortunately the cricket match described today by Margaret Mills, was anything but “genteel”.
The match in question took place in two halves between THE MEN OF ESSEX and THE MEN OF KENT.
The first part of this event took place at THE CROWN INN in Billericay in 1761 with the return match staged two years later at Tilbury Fort.
It seems that this was not a particularly friendly event so perhaps the teams did not buy drinks for one another after the first get together at The Crown Inn.
Certainly the return match turned into a real horror story after one of the team members from Kent was disqualified.
When we talk about a horror story, we’re not joking as the return match ended with a number of deaths including that of an Essex player and the commander of Tilbury Fort!
If you missed this story you can listen to it again here:-
I very much hope you will be able to join me once again next week but in the meantime may I wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope you will enjoy your holiday break and that it will not turn into any kind of horror story!
Scott
