The Beighton Cup (also known as the Coal India Beighton Cup for sponsorship reasons[2]) is a field hockey tournament organized by Hockey Bengal (formerly the Bengal Hockey Association).[3][4] Instituted in 1895, it is one of the oldest field hockey tournaments in the world and is held every year in Kolkata.[5][6][7][8]
Beighton had married for a second time in 1897 and in 1898 had a son, Thomas Percival Durant Beighton (aka T.P.D. Beighton, died 1971), who was, like his father, a keen sportsman, particularly at both Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford University.[14][15] He later published his accounts as a motoring enthusiast; a sport, like cricket, that he enjoyed with his brother-in-law, John Alfred Middleton, MC, whose wedding to T.P.D. Beighton's sister, Dorothea, in London at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square had featured on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 5 January 1922.[16][17][18][19] T.P.D. Beighton and Middleton had been boarders together at Winchester and then enlisted during WWI following which they both entered Christ Church, Oxford as freshmen in 1919.[20][21][22] T.P.D. Beighton's wife, Kathleen Muriel Beighton (née Hood), was the daughter of sports benefactor Sir Joseph Hood, 1st Baronet.[23][24]
Recent decades
Today, the Beighton Cup hockey tournament is organised by Hockey Bengal, previously called the Bengal Hockey Association and used to be held on natural grass at the Mohun Bagan ground on the Maidan in Kolkata (earlier called Calcutta) in India. For last few years, it has been held on Astro Turf (artificial grass) at Sports Authority of India (SAI East) in Kolkata.[25] The Beighton Cup was initially organized by the Indian Football Association, until the Bengal Hockey Association took over in 1905.[26]
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.[27]
Dhyan Chand remembers
In his autobiography Goal!, the legendary Dhyan Chand 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."[28]
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 team for the Amsterdam Games was selected in Kolkata after the 1928 nationals.[29]
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 history and Kolkata no longer has a hockey Olympian.[30] Despite its pioneering role in the history of Indian hockey, Kolkata is the only major metropolis in India without an artificial turf.[29] "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.[30]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."[30]
Big names
Leslie Claudius was the biggest name in Kolkata hockey; he played for Customs in Kolkata, and won 4 Olympic medals from 1948 to 1960 (3 gold, 1 silver).[26]
^The Legal Remembrancer's Manual. West Bengal (India). Legal Remembrancer's Directorate. 1971. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^India List - Civil and Military. H.M. Stationery Office. 1888. p. 20. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2022. 1867 - Beighton, Thomas Durant, District and Sess. Judge, Bengal
^"The Homeward Mail - PERSONAL AND OFFICIAL". The Homeward Mail. 6 February 1906. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022. Homeward Mail from India, China and the East London, England 24 Feb 1906 The Homeward Mall. PERSONAL AND OFFICIAL India in the Public Works Dept. The death has occurred at Gibraltar, from heart failure, of Mr. Thomas Durant Beighton, late of the Bengal Civil Service. Mr. Beighton had been since his retirement from the Indian Civil Service in 1896 an active Unionist worker. He was...[member of the United Club]...
^"Princess of Wales". Morning Post London, England 11 Mar 1898. 11 March 1898. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022. Morning Post London, England 4 Feb 1897 NOTICES place on the 21st of April, at Bath. A marriage has been arranged, and will take place at Cannes on Saturday, between Thomas Durant Beighton, late of the Indian Civil Service, and recently a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, and Ada, widow of the...[Also]...Morning Post London, England, 11 Mar 1898 - Mrs. T. Durant Beighton gave birth to a son on Thursday morning at..., Gloucester-square, Hyde- park.
^"Busy Cupids". The Tatler. 21 December 1921. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022. At St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, on January 4, [1922] Mr. J. A. Middle- ton, M.C., is to be married to Miss Dorothea Beighton, and on...[Also, Front Page, Daily Mirror London, England 5 January 1922...by dainty little train-bearers, outside the church after the wedding yesterday of Mr. J. A. Middleton, M.C., and Miss D. Beighton, at St. Peter's, Eaton-square.—(Daily Mirror photograph.)]
^"Cricket". Star Green ...Yorkshire, England. 30 July 1921. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022. ...Middleton sent one ball perilously near to mid-off and banged the next ball into the sight screen. Then Beighton took off his bails!
^"Personal and General". The Near East: 290. 10 March 1921. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2022. The engagement is announced of John Middleton, younger son of Mr and Mrs Gilbert Middleton of Glebe House, Headingley, Leeds and Dorothea, only daughter of the late Thomas Durant Beighton, I.C.S., Member of Bengal Legislative Council, and Mrs Arthur Saltren-Willett,...
^"COURT AND PERSONAL". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer Yorkshire, England. 7 December 1921. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022. The marriage arranged between Mr. J. A. Middleton, M.C., and Miss Dorothea Beighten [daughter of Judge Thomas D. Beighton] will take place at St. Peter's, Eaton Square, January 4 [1922], 12.15 p.m. Owing to the mourning [of the groom's late father, Gilbert Middleton...]
^Beighton, T.P.D. (1965). Rome Overnight. Temple Press Ltd. p. 28. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^"LIST OF FRESHMEN". Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, Oxfordshire. 2 May 1919. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2020. Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette Oxfordshire, England 2 May 1919 LIST OF FRESHMEN A. F. Gilmor, F. L. Moss, G. Pakenharn-Walsh, .1! B. Herbert, Hon, R. H. Winn, R. E. Owen, T. F. Coade, T. P. D. Beighton, A. J. Middleton,...
^Wells, P. (1923). Winchester College 1867-1920 (and Old Wykehamists 1975). Winchester College. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2022. ...John Alfred Middleton...his wife was [Dorothy] the sister of T.P.D. Beighton (Winchester (1911-1916) and Christ Church (1919-)...Accountant...
^Burke's Peerage. Burke's Peerage Ltd. 1963. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2022. Kathleen Muriel [Hood] ( 41, Palace Gardens Terrace, W.8 ), 1.902 1905; m . 1stly, 20 April 1929 ( m . diss . by div . 1938 ), Thomas Percival Durant Beighton, eldest son of late Thomas Durant Beighton, 1.C.S. S
^"Sir Joseph Hood's Many Benefactions". Liverpool Echo Lancashire, England. 10 January 1931. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020. SIR JOSEPH HOOD'S MANY BENEFACTIONS Sir Joseph Hood. Bart., J.P., died at his residence, Greycourt, Parkside, Wimbledon Common, London, to-day. He took a great interest in the National Playing Fields Association. In 1921 he purchased, laid out, ...
^"Beighton Cup". bharatiyahockey.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2007.
