Who invented the rubber bladder ball?

​Why is a rugby ball oval? The answer begins with a Victorian tragedy, a massive pile of pig organs, and an inventor the sports world completely forgot.

​In this episode, we unearth the bizarre and heartbreaking history of Richard Lindon—the 19th-century English cordwainer (shoemaker) who quite literally shaped modern sports. Long before billion-dollar stadiums and synthetic gear, rugby balls were made from real, raw pig bladders encased in hand-stitched leather.

​But this wasn't just a quirky historical craft; it was deadly. We deep-dive into the tragic story of Richard’s wife, Rebecca Lindon, who tragically died from a lung infection contracted while inflating hundreds of diseased pig bladders by mouth. Driven by grief and a desperate need for a safer alternative, Richard invented the India rubber inflatable bladder and the iconic brass hand pump (inspired by a medical ear syringe!).

​Despite inventing the iconic four-panel oval rugby ball used by millions today, Lindon never patented his designs—allowing rival William Gilbert to secure the legacy.

​What we cover this week:

• ​🐖 The Pig Bladder Era: Why early footballs and rugby balls were shaped like lumpy plums.
• ​💔 A Fatal Invention: How a toxic workplace tragedy sparked a sports revolution.
• ​🏉 The Oval Genesis: How rubber bladders allowed Lindon to create the first egg-shaped ball for Rugby School.
• ​❌ The Patent Mistake: Why history remembers Gilbert, but forgot Lindon.

​Hit Subscribe and leave us a 5-star review if you love hidden history told with a smile!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Honourable mentions. Hello listener. I hope you're sprightly and gay, because I have some rather glum news, I'm afraid. Neil is a bit sad today and might not want to be coaxed out from his hutch. So far not one person, not anybody, and it pains me to say, that includes you, listener, has sent a nougar recipe or recommendations of the best nougar money can buy to honourable mentionspod at gmail dot com or even on our social media pages. But hey ho, as always this week, so let's try and tempt him out, shall we? All together now. Hello Neil Hello. Oh he's there, listener. Shall we try again? Hello Neil Hello You still a bit grumpy.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Sulking.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Oh yeah? Yeah. Could we tempt you out with some new gar?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Um no.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Oh, it's not bad, is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, there's a dirty taste in my mouth at the minute.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Does it?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

A nutty, dirty taste.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah. Like eating squirrel poo.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Oh, different kind of nuts, I was thinking. But anyway, I'm gonna cheer you up. Hello, Neil. Hello. With the subject of today's story. Okay. Shall we begin in Clifton upon Dunsmore?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Um Yeah, why not go for it? Shall I go for that, shall I? Yeah, dip your bread and gravy, son, let's have it.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Clifton upon Dunsmore, as you will know very well, Neil, because you know lots of things, is an historic hilltop village in Warwickshire, right in the heart of jolly old England.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yes. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

So I'm afraid last few weeks we've been to Poland and America. India haven't we've been to India.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

We've been to Austria.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

And now we're in jolly old Blight. Yes. Back in England. But for a multilingualist such as yourself, the challenges will be limited.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

So here we are in Clifton upon Dunsmore, which rests perched on the ridge roughly four hundred feet above sea level and overlooks the surrounding green countryside.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

That's lovely.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

England's green and pleasant lands.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

In the middle of the village, St. Mary's Church has origins dating back to the thirteenth century. That's the twelve hundreds.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

That'd be off by now.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

What well? The origins. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Not oranges. Oh. Not oranges. I thought you said oranges, sorry. I was saying they must look good now, would they?

SPEAKER_04 2:53

No, all the oranges from the thirteenth century will be pretty much gone off. Yeah, I thought so. Even a preserve from the year twelve hundred and something wouldn't be tasting too good now.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Never know, do you?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Never know.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Give it a try next time you come across one.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I've done two things like that, thank you. I don't get that excited about charred preserves.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

I'll set them up, you knock them down. Hey. Anyway, Neil, right? Yeah, get this, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yes, I'm getting it, yeah.

unknown 3:21

St.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Mary's Church, which dates back to the twelve hundreds.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

At eleven minutes past six in the evening, eighteen eleven, on the second of July in the year eighteen eleven, a young carpenter and local lad named John Lyndon married Mary Over from the nearby town of Rugby. Rugby. On the thirtieth of June 1816, so just gone quarter past six now, a couple welcomed a baby boy. They'd hang around, did they? It took him five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, he's certainly got his leg over. That was her name, wasn't it? Surname.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

On the 30th of June 1816, the couple welcomed a baby boy into the world, and Richard Lyndon was baptized at St. Mary's on the 15th of September.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Dickie Linden.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

Sadly. Yeah. And we're already hitting a tragedy here.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Sadly, John died when Richard was young. And so he was brought up by his mother Mary at her parents' house, number 20 High Street, in Rugby. The home was immediately across from the front doors of the prestigious Rugby School. Rugby School. Now, if you are not too sure of English education, dear listener, then Rugby School is what we call here a private school. In other words, you have to pay to attend. Your parents have to pay for you to attend such a school, and usually it costs quite a jolly amount of money, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

A princely sum on a monthly basis or a term basis.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

It's one of the leading schools as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

We don't need no education.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

No private school as well, you've been wearing them black capes and things like that, and they walk around with the books held funny against their chest.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

We don't need no thought control.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah. No one else knows the school that carries books like that, don't they? You know people carry books like in a comprehensive school.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

They're doing American TV programmes and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

TV programmes, but yeah, but in in in this country they don't carry the books like they do here, or like they do at public schools.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Always tell someone walking down the street as been to public school or come out of a bookshop because they always carry the books the same way. That's my observations.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Twenty High Street was quite crowded. Oh. With ten overs living there. Ten overs?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Ten overs. Ah for 2020 match.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

One of them was called Roger.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Hey. Yeah, over? Roger.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

Under Roger Over, huh? So in this house near 20 High Street, there were ten overs, plus Richard and his mum, Lawton Smith, the shoemaker, apprentice to Richard's grandfather, Sarah Smith, the house servant. I don't know whether they were related or not.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

As well as a chap called John Webb. Ooh. Who was a carpenter. Oh. John Webb apparently was a very helpful and generous man who helped Mary over with many of her woodworking projects. Did he? Often Richard would ask for his mum, only to be told that John Webb was out the back slipping era length. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

So he was obviously quite a helpful fellow.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

He was good for his wood.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Yes. Handled it well. Yeah. Richard grew up to become a skilled shoemaker trading from Twenty High Street in the family business of supplying footwear to the townsfolk of Rugby, plus, of course, the teachers and pupils resident in the school opposite. Oh. And what was the name of that school, please, Neil? Rugby School. Rugby School. In eighteen thirty-seven he married Rebecca Morrell, and the couple eventually moved to 34 High Street, which was located further along away from Rugby School.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah, but not farther, was it?

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Not that far. But it's a good job they moved to their own place because within a short space of time they'd banged out seventeen children. Seventeen children. Seventeen children. That's enough for an entire football team and the bench, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah. Jeepers as an entire rugby team with two substitutes.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

And two substitutes. And for once it wasn't because they're all dying left, right, and centre. Richard and Rebecca were just constantly at it.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Sounds like it. Oh, Dickie Over was out of it, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Or that candle light, I suppose, is very romantic, and they only had one LP, and that was Luther Van Dross. So they're gonna get it on, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah, they are gonna get it on.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

I could have had Marvin Gay, actually.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Let's get it on. What's your name? Barry White. Barry White.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

The Walrus of Love.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

Despite the obvious lack of sleep, both Richard and Rebecca managed to become successful entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

And it did, didn't they? Get some money in.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

She owned and ran her own employment agency for servants, and he had his own shoemaking business. Nice. Imagine opening the door on the bell, and you open the door. Excuse me, are my brogues ready?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

With you in a minute, sir, my equipment is just buried in the wife. This is quite a smutty episode, this one now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

It is smutty. Yeah, I like smuttiness sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

Stop it, please. I can't help it.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Stop your smut. Now then Neil. Hello, Neil!

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Still there.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

No.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Should we wait for you to come back?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yes, please. Still not there yet. I'm here now.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Hello, Neil. Hello. Richard naturally had regular supplies of boot leather delivered to his shop. As you would do, because he was a booty shoe man. He's gonna he's struggling, isn't he? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

He can make him out of cork, that'll keep the business afloat. That was a real stinker, huh?

SPEAKER_04 9:38

As a consequence, he was pestered by the boys of rugby school to make footballs for them.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

To make footballs for them at rugby school. Yeah. Well kept losing them, did they kept kicking them over the wall or something? So I ain't gonna fetch it, you fetch it. Oh you fetch it, I saw it leave it.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

They're rich enough. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Yeah, rich enough just to get Jeeves. Jeeves, go and fetch my ball.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah. Bring the hamper back with you.

SPEAKER_04 10:02

Yeah, if you don't you're you're gonna get a jolly good beasting. Well you have to realise, Neil, you're realising this.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Not trying to.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Back in those days all balls, football and rugby balls, were plum shaped.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

I'd like you to imagine a plum, please.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

And the same shape as that.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Okay. How would you describe that shape? Sort of like an ovaly but rounded oval. Yeah, or plum shaped. Someone stood on the football.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

As opposed to a banana shape, or the shape of a fold cortina. Yeah. It's more plum shaped, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yes, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

The reason for this is that a pig's bladder was inflated by mouth through the snap stem of a clay pipe and then encased in panels of stitched leather, such as the individual pigs bladder, dictated the shape of each bowl.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Hmm. Blow the pig's bladder up, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

It's biological, you assume.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Do you get a blowback off it and you got a little bit of pigs wee wee in your mouth?

SPEAKER_04 11:11

For some reason, Richard and Rebecca agreed that when it came to blowing plums, she had a special talent.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Sounds like it.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

And so, alongside being mother to seventeen children and the head of an employment agency, Rebecca became chief pig's bladder inflator. Right, okay. As you can put that on your business card.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, she had some lungs on her, didn't she?

SPEAKER_04 11:35

The process was extremely hazardous because, as well as the potential of inhaling some stale pig's wee wee, bacteria or infections in the dead pig's bladder would pass directly into her lungs.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

I don't know why they had to say dead pig's bladder there, because you know, it's not gonna be a live pig, is it?

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Um not really.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

There'd be a lot of squealing. Trying to hold it still.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Hold it still.

unknown 12:08

Tragically.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Oh, there it is.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Tragically near. We've got another tragedy here. Yeah. Rebecca Blue won too many infected pigs.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

Haven't we all? And died in 1843. And died in 1843 of lung disease. They were married for just six years. They're married six years, and they said 17 kids at that time. I know, is that even possible?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

It's like the conveyor belt in the generation game, isn't it? There comes another one. Another one.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

Some twins or something amongst all that. They must have had twins or something amongst all that, or quadrant lips 17 or six years. Yeah.

unknown 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

He was on top getting the one loaded in. There you go, girl.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Oh, oh push, push, push. Oh, congratulations, it's a little boy, right? Excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Out of the way, fella. Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

Perhaps he had a system.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Might have done.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Perhaps he was at it from one end or she panted heavily into a clay pipe at the other.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah, couldn't he?

SPEAKER_04 13:28

That would have made sense. Rebecca's tragic death affected Richard greatly, Neil. I think it did. I think it did after your mockery. And suddenly he was left alone as a parent to seventeen children.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Nevertheless, he worked relentlessly to create a safer alternative to the pig's bladder and came up with the India rubber bladder. So no one else would ever have to suffer like Rebecca.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Suffer like Rebecca. An Indian rubber bladder.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

That'd be a good name for an Indie Goth band, wouldn't it? Suffer Like Rebecca.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I thought you were going to say Indian rubber bladder.

SPEAKER_04 14:11

Indian rubber bladder. That'd be their first album.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Oh right, okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Richard had seen India Rubber used in many applications at the 1850s. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

He didn't use them in Married Life, did he? No, he didn't.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

Richard has seen India Rubber used in many applications at the 1851 Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace, London.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Ooh, was that the Great Exhibition of Rubber?

SPEAKER_04 14:36

No, it's just the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in the Pike Prince Albert. Yeah, and um that woman he was married to. Do you remember who that was?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Victoria.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Queen Victoria.

unknown 14:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

However, near what was the problem with India rubber?

SPEAKER_01 14:53

I would imagine stocking it from getting in from India.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Another reason, practical reason, that is a practical reason, but another reason that you may think of.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

What was happening to the pig's bladder?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

It's blowing up. By human beings. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

You can't do that with Indian rubber. Why? Because it's too tough to do that with, isn't it? We use a bike pump. But what such a thing. There was hardly such a thing as bicycles.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Well he meant something like that then.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Bicycles they did have didn't have tires on them. There's no pneumatic tires at this point. Ingenuity. Mr. Dunlop invented those a few years later. But you may be onto something there, Neil.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Because at the same exhibition, he also saw an ordinary glass ear syringe and immediately set off home to produce a larger brass version that would blow up his balls.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

And while doing that, he had a Eureka moment. Why not use the larger brass version to inflate his Indian rubber bladders instead?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Yeah. Just leave his balls alone.

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Yes. Got into enough trouble, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

Richard's idea was so good he won awards when he exhibited it with a deep cleaned large brass pump, of course.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Because it'd be all around his balls, hadn't it?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

You wouldn't want to be around and touch that, would you? Clean it up first.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

In 1862, courtesy of his inflatable bladder.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

Richard was granted the position of principal football maker to rugby school.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Ooh, interesting.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

And then in 1867, he can only moved his business to 6 Lawrence Sheriff Street, Rugby.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Oh yes. Yeah. Lawrence Sheriff's nice bloke.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Directly opposite the front doors opening to the quadrangle of the world famous Rugby School. Rugby School. Richard's new location, along with his rubber bladder and brass hand pump, cemented him as the go-to maker of big side match balls for rugby school, as well as Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin Universitas.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

All these universitars is making their balls for them.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 17:15

As well as this.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

He came up with the puntabout seven panelled button balls.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

The hunt about seven panelled button balls.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Punt about punt like one would do on the river cam in Cambridge or in Venice.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

So you push it with a big stick?

SPEAKER_04 17:37

No. That's just the word.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Punt about seven panelled button balls, so called, because the internal bladder was secured at the ends of the ball by leather buttons. These were more melon-shaped, around eleven inches or twenty-eight centimetres long, and incredibly popular with sporting students.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Oh but big melons are though, aren't they?

SPEAKER_04 17:58

Big melons have never gone out of fashion. Young male students do have seem to have quite a fixation on big melons.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Yeah, and they're good for you as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah, they are, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

I like to get my face in them.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Do you?

SPEAKER_04 18:11

Yeah, sometimes and eat them. Or sometimes, if I've got it either side of my face, sometimes I like to wobble my face from side to side. So I I managed to get all the melons in my mouth at once.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Oh, okay. I'm trying not to picture that.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Must say me eating fruit.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Oh yeah, so I'm trying not to picture.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Okay. His invention allowed the production of the first ever round ball for association football or for our American friends.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Soccer.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

Hey, hey Ward! Going out for a game of soccer?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Not got a Keith over there, have they, or a Simon?

SPEAKER_04 18:50

They're all Ward or Ducks. His invention allowed the production of the first ever round ball for Association football. Though the round bowls still had a button at each end to hold the stitching together at the point where the leather panels met. Now, Neil.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

When I say button, I'm not talking about the s sort of button you could take off the ball and fasten your shirt with. It's it's a button as in a round piece of leather stitched in deliberately at the ends to hold it all together.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

That's that's the button.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

But time waits for no man, Neil.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Do you like that?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

I've heard it before.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

No, I haven't.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

I've just invented that little saying, I invented that idiom.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Okay. Don't call me an idiom.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

It'll be all the rage by tomorrow. Oh, there's another one. You're welcome, listener. Anyway, enough literary syllains. Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Enough liter Anyway. Enough literally.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Anyway. Yeah, enough of this shit.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

Back to the story.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

For some reason, probably because grief is his driving force.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

That is to say necessity is the mother of all invention.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

I can't think myself now, can I? All his idioms flying around. Richard didn't patent his bowl, his bladder, or his pump.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

By the eighteen eighties, folks were demanding buttonless balls, and a chap called William Gilbert. Yeah. Who was a cobbler who owned a store on the high street in Rugby, and the man with whom Richard had served his apprenticeship, had also begun to manufacture rubber bladder balls. And more to the point. Richard Lingdon.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

That's him.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

I'm glad you're paying attention, Neil.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

But buttonless wasn't enough for those boys of rugby school, was it?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

No, because you're not.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

Because they're no, they're frightful. Frightfully frightful.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

You absolute sha.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Do all these balls with any buttons on them, please.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

I can tell you they're an absolute sha. A positive sha.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

They wanted an oval ball produced to distinguish their hand and foot game over the increasingly popular Association Football's round ball.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

So it was Richard, not Gilbert, who rose to the challenge and created a bladder design which allowed a more exaggerated egg-shaped four panel buttonless bowl to be manufactured. The first specifically designed rugby ball and the start of size standardization. In 1877, which was the year William Gilbert died, Richard wrote his will, leaving his shop to the godparents of his surviving children. A decade later, Richard Linden died on the 10th of June 1887. His son, Hughes John Linden, who already worked in the business, purchased the proceeds of his father's will on the twelfth of April 1888 for 1,000 pounds. 1,000 pounds? 1,000 pounds. And continued trading. Would you like to hazard a guess, Neil?

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Of anything or just Just anything, just hazard a guess. Um Ipswitch.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

Ooh, no. The correct answer is one thousand pounds in April 1888 is £169,000 today. £169,000.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

But to be fair to you, that £169,000 is also valid in Ipswich. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

Hughes traded, this is Hughes John Linden, traded as the manufacturer of the true rugby ball up until 1900. When he sold the business to a rugby-based boot and shoemaker with Neil. Yeah. Hello, Neil.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

Were you still there?

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

Okay. With the fantastic name of Albert Jiggle.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Love it. Love it. Just a shame they weren't making the melon shade, wouldn't you? Because they're going to call it a melon jiggle. Albert Jiggle. Albert Jiggle. What a name. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

This all went on while the Gilbert family was spending heavily on advertising.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Well how did you advertise that with Jiggle?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

The Football Association, FA, had selected the number five size bowl from Lillywites, the famous sports store on London's Regent Street, which is still there today.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

They do lemonade as well.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

That's R Whites.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

R Whites Lemonade.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, I like Wild's Lemonade. If anybody's listening from R Whit's Lemonade, don't they? I'm sure they still do R Whites Lemonade, but it is very nice.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

Yeah, yeah, they also do. You can't do that, you they won't send you any because you've just outed yourself and you should be a secret lemonade drinker.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Oh, okay. Oh wait.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

Anyways, right, going back to the story with that your little interludes. They'd selected the number five bowl from Lidywites.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Liddy Whites, yes, as you said.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

As the uniform size for the FA Cup competition.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

And later their Football League. Football League. And the Gilbert family had a very strong relationship with the store.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

It was also the Gilbert Company's Eye for Detail, focus on quality and design, the durability of the oval balls, and readiness to quickly adopt to synthetic materials that became available that meant they became a prominent name, and to this day, professional rugby union is played with a Gilbert and not a Linden ball.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

It is played with a Gilbert ball, yes. So what's Albert Jiggle got to do with it?

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Albert Jiggle bought out the Linden Company from Hughes, didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Ah right, okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

If you were paying attention. Am I getting too complex for you?

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Couldn't get past his name. Whose name? Albert Jiggle.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

See, I've forgotten my ready because I've moved on. Because I'm mature.

SPEAKER_04 26:03

Richard Linden and Go still exist.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

And now they do hold the registered design for the original puntabout button ball.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Right. But no one uses it, do they?

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Well, they they sell it as a kind of handmade, crafty. It looks very high quality from what I've seen. But it's yeah, it's more of a kind of thing to put on. On your shelf or on your rugby club wall or something.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

You do all these sort of um middle class rugby players with a jumpers over their shoulders and gather on the shelf and go get the chaps around for a drink. I say chaps, chaps. Two come on off my my button-ended ball. My puntabout? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

It was it was it's lovely. The rugby school did find, I think relatively recently-ish, there was a blocked chimney that had always been blocked, and they did find an original punt about ball from the 18 somethings lodged in this chimney. So there is still one and only one original punt about ball that's still in existence. I think it's in rugby museum, somewhere like that. Anyway, Neil, right? Get out of this. If it wasn't for Richard's desire to create a better and safer method of ball inflation following the tragic death of his wife Rebecca, would the global explosion and popularity for association football have ever happened?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Because we're all playing pigs bladders that were all odd shapes. Yeah, but then someone would have come along, wouldn't they?

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Would rugby have developed beyond the gates of the school?

SPEAKER_01 27:52

See, I always thought it the rugby was burned John Webb, picked the ball up and ran with it.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

John Webb was the carpenter who lived in the house. You're thinking of William Webb Ellis. And you're the you're the rugby player, you're the rugby aficionado.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Oh no, I'm not on Ficiado, I used to play rugby, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Right, yeah, but the William White Ellis, William Webb Ellis.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

See that neck of yours, wind it in.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

It's the name of the world trophy, isn't it? The World Cup. Leave your ginking hissed on one side, please won't get this.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

So they thought was uh what's the name Wellis Ellis Wellis, whatever you call him, Webb. But yes, now now now I know where the name Gilbert comes up. I often thought there's Gilbert rugby ball.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

William Webb Ellis.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

You've often thought, have you?

SPEAKER_01 28:42

No, I've often thought about the Gilbert ball. Why is it made named Gilbert? Because you know, you get all your Adidas, or as they say in America, or Adidas, and Pooper and uh Mitre and all them sort of things, they're well known, but Gilbert has only stayed within the uh the rugby ball area.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

There you go. Interesting. Would rugby have developed beyond the gate of the school? And yes, Neil.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

And yes. It was Richard's India rubber bladder design and his four-panelled buttons oval ball that was imported to the USA and without it we wouldn't have or they wouldn't have NFL.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Right. What's NFL?

SPEAKER_03 29:33

American football.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

National Football League. Oh, National Football League. It's doesn't sound anything like AFL, is it all?

SPEAKER_04 29:40

Oh, it's time to get the glove puppets out, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 29:44

No, don't worry about it. I'll get there.

SPEAKER_04 29:45

No, you'll get there eventually.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

I'll get there eventually, it'll catch up.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

This is all not a bad legacy for a forgotten boot and shoemaker from Warwickshire in the heart of England, is it? Yes it is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

It's not so at all, is it?

SPEAKER_04 29:57

If it wasn't for tragedy in his life, which he'd rather have done without, of course.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

He wouldn't have gone on to invent the Indian rubber bladder.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

He wouldn't have gone on to then modify his Indian rubber bladder into what we've now call the modern day rugby ball shape.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

Even if he was a bad businessman and allowed William Gilbert to take over and become the de facto rugby ball of the d of today.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

But without him, would Association Football have grown like it did worldwide?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Well he perhaps needed to put his energies into somewhere else because he he wasn't taking it out on his wife.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

His seventeen children.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah. Seventeen children, six years old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

Seventeen children. Is that physically possible? I don't know. I don't think it is. But yeah, I could say less other than betweens or triplets or along that line. If anyone does know, if anyone's listening from your rugby or Warwickshire and does know the genealogy of Richard Linden's family and the seventeen children, yeah. That would be quite interesting. If you contact us, yeah. Contact us on social media, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we're on uh TikTok. TikTok, we're on YouTube, you can get us on any of those.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah. That'd be interesting to find out what happened to Albert Jiggle.

SPEAKER_04 31:31

What happened to Albert Jiggle? Are there any other jiggles out there?

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yeah. Are they still jiggling now?

SPEAKER_04 31:37

Are they still the jiggle still the jiggling? Yeah. Great name if you are.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

It is a great name. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 31:43

And if there is a jiggle out there who has a nougar recipe or a recommendation of a way to buy the best nougar, get in touch on social media or you can contact us on honourable mentionspod at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Oh, it's all cheered up and then he's just gone thrown it all back in my face.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

What with a nougar? Well imagine though how jolly happy you would be if a Mr. or Mrs. or Miss Jiggle got in touch and said, Here's my nougar recommendations.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yes, I do like a bit of nougat. You do like a bit of a nugget. Let's call it nugget. It's nugget, isn't it? It's not a chicken nugget, it's a nugget nugget.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Nougar nugget.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

Thank you, listener, for listening to our complete load of bowls we'll see you again next week for another exciting episode of Uh is it honourable mentions? It may be. Yeah. We'll carry on with that, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah. Let's do another one of Honourable Mentions. Well, there we go.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

Thank you, listener. Thank you. Hello, Neil. Bonjour. And we will see you again soon.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Honourable mentions.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Bonjourno.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Honourable mentions.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Good eye. Honourable mentions. Honourable mentions. Honourable mentions.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Obviously the boys are well pleased to get through another tough gig. I've just been with them back there in the changing room, and they're blown away by the support they got today. To be fair, you turn enough week after week to listen to this rubric and they can't thank you enough. Everyone associated with honorable mentions knows that we are nothing without you. Obviously, if you can spread the love by sharing, liking, and subscribing, I thought we needed to be a bit tighter in the second half. Maybe in the first fullback, but if you have your own comments, or we'd just like to say hello to the boys who can on social media or by emailing honorable mentions to email.com. That's all these got a statement. Honorable mentions is researched by Stephen Web, but it's a team game. Obviously, this whole thing really is production. And the prematch music is written and performed by Petra. Obviously, we'd be delighted if you gave them a list and screen your music. And we're going to need your support again next time. Thank you.