Challenge Competitions

There are many known instances of clog dancers challenging other individual dancers, or sometime all-comers to compete on a one-to-one basis.  Most often these challenges do not appear to have been taken up, and in some cases they have the more the look of a publicity stunt than a genuine offer.  This is perhaps most true where professional artistes were concerned, it being another way to get their name in front of the public.

Details of known examples follow:

On the sidelines of the World Clog Championship held in Bow, London in 1898, professional performer Tom Leamore gave as his reason for not entering that neither Dan Leno nor Horace Wheatley were competing.  This rather disparaging comment gave rise to challenges from a competitor – Joe Nixon (for a £50 stake) and invitations from two others, P. Carey and C. Mack (for £50 a side) for him to dance against either J.G. Burns or any of the dancers in the first three places.  There is no evidence that the challenges were ever taken up.  Information from The Era  5/2/1898 and 12/2/1898, 12/2/1898 (2).