After the fiasco of the 1882 championship, the rules were amended to allow the winner to keep the championship belt in perpetuity. The event commenced at the People’s Music Hall, Oldham on the 14th May 1883, the finals being on the 14th May. Each competitor wasa required to dance 20 steps and a double shuffle.
In fact we know very little about the details of this competition, despite it being perhaps the best-known of the series of contests. Tom Ward having kept the bhampionship belt a new one was manufactured courtesy of Leno’s friend William Jeffreys.
Tom Ward, it seems, declined to compete, as he was playing with Sam Hague’s MInstrels at the Royal Alhambrs, Barrow that week. We know nothing of the other competitors nor the result other than that Leno won. Indeed the whole event seems perhaps to have been set up for that purpose.
The magnificent belt is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
