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Richard Lindon (1880

Richard Lindon (30 June 1816 - 10 June 1887) was instrumental in the development of the modern-day rugby football.

Lindon set up home and shop at 6 Lawrence Sheriff Street, Rugby, England, immediately opposite the front doors of the Quadrangle of the Rugby School. As a boot and shoemaker, Lindon supplied footwear to the townsfolk of Rugby including the teachers and pupils of the school.

Balls in those days were not spherical, but more plum-shaped. This was because a pig's bladder was inflated by mouth through the snapped stem of a clay pipe then encased in panels of stitched leather. As such, the individual bladder dictated the shape of each ball.

By 1849, Lindon, now aged 33, who naturally had regular supplies of boot leather delivered, found himself bombarded by the boys of Rugby School to manufacture footballs for them. Lindon and his wife worked flat-out producing more balls than shoes.

Mrs. Lindon, besides being mother to 17 children, was the official "green" pigs bladder inflator. Blowing pigs bladders was not without its hazards. If the pig was diseased, it was going into Mrs. Lindon's lungs. Eventually Mrs. Lindon blew on enough infected pigs bladders to fall ill and consequently die.

Around 1862 Richard Lindon sought a safer substitute to the pigs bladder and came up with the India rubber bladder as an alternative. India rubber was too tough to inflate by mouth and after seeing an ordinary ear syringe he produced a larger brass version to blow up his footballs, which he demonstrated, and won medals, at an exhibition in London.

This allowed the production of the first round ball, though it still had a button at each end of the ball to hold the stitching together, at the point where the leather panels met. "Buttonless balls" became a prime selling point for suppliers and manufacturers by the 1880's.

The Rugby School boys still wanted an oval ball produced to distinguish their hand and foot game over the soccer football, so Lindon created a bladder design which allowed a more egg-shaped buttonless ball to be manufactured. This was the first specifically-designed four-panel Rugby ball and the start of size standardisation.

By 1861 Richard Lindon was recognised as the principal Foot-Ball Maker to Rugby School, Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Universities. Lindon's "Big-Side Match Ball" was recognised as the true rugby ball and was successfully manufactured by both Richard Lindon and subsequently, his son, Hughes John Lindon for 50 years.

Lindon failed to patent his ball, his bladder and his pump. Had he done so his name would have been synonymous with the name of Rugby Football. Richard Lindon died on 10 June 1887.

• William Gilbert

• Official Richard Lindon Site
• Oliver Price Blood, mud and aftershave in The Observer Sunday February 5, 2006, Section B is for Ball