Badge of the week ~ Oxford City
The paddling cow was a cow that escaped in Oxford in 1425 while being driven to market. The procedure was in those days for the first person on the scene of the mishap or offence to raise the hue and cry. If they failed to do so, they would be considered by the sheriff to be the cause of the incident. The cowherd on this occasion raised the hue, but failed to raise the cry. He would normally have raised them both at the same time but, after he had raised the hue, he got into a conversation with a chandler about a problem he was having getting wax out of a new rug and completely forgot about the cry.
The cow, in the confusion, made good its escape by ploughing across the river Cherwell and stumbling away to freedom where, by repute, it set up a cow collective in the Chilterns. The price of the cow was forfeited by its owner owing to the negligence of the cowherd and the cowherd was punished by the farmer in the usual way at that time in Oxford; namely, clapped in irons and made to listen to a folk song about a girl who grew into her looks. Oxford City commemorate the first cow in the area to take to the water, prior, of course, to the famous annual Oxford Cow Punt Relay first held by the students of Christ Church in 1894. Cameron Carter
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A nicely weighted pass to a steward.
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The drawbacks of windy weather – keeper concedes a free-kick for catching the ball..
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from Matthew Rudd
“This Saturday is the 20th anniversary of an event that should be better known, Duane Darby scoring six goals for Hull City in an FA Cup tie, a record he shares with George Best.”..
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic wins his tenth successive Swedish player of the year award. Next time they should just give him a cuddly toy or a fondue set.
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West Brom take a Twitter swipe at Aston Villa.
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Also in the news this week
Wayne Rooney withdraws apology for being drunk
FA morale at “all-time low”
Leicester fans’ clapper ban