An Athletics Compendium

The Uterature of Athletics kaleidoscopicaccount of the first hundred yearsof the AAAand John Keddie's Scottish Athletics 1883-1983 (1982), taking a different, event-specific approach, is also outstanding. Alas, being official accounts, there is a predictable, if unintended, sanitisation and there is, therefore, little feeling for the struggles between the administratorsandNationalCoaches in the post-warperiod, litde seriouscriticismof the hypocrisyof shamateurism,and only limited recognition of the pollution of anabolic steroids inmore recent times. Similarly,the 1979 AAAhistory,gives little idea of the resistanceto change that F. A. M. Webster undoubtedly experienced in the period between the wars, or the desperatestrugglesof G. H. G. Dyson, as he battled with officials to create a coaching scheme subsequent to the 1948 Olympics. Alas, neither Dyson or even the prolific Websterleft behindanythingwhich wouldenlightenhistorianson theirproblemsduring the periods in which theyworked. Governingbody historieshave, therefore,much of the flavour of partypolitical broadcasts.Even a scrutiny of nationalassociationcommitteeminuteswouldbe unlikely to reveal the cut and thrust of debate which undoubtedlyoccurred, for this is history whichhas died in memory. Pedestrianism Professional foot-racing is the dark side of the athletics moon. Pedestrianism predatesamateurathletics byat least two hundredyears,and duringits long historyhas takenfour distinctforms:match-racing;challenges involvingtimeor distance;handicap- racing; scratch or handicap races within rural sports, such as Highland or Lakeland Games. Match-racingbeganin Englandin the seventeenthcentury,reachedits peakin the finalquarter of the nineteenth century,and ended in the early1930s. Challengesinvolving timeor distancewere almost as common asmatch-races in the eighteenth century,and sometimesinvolved triathlon-type'run a mile,swima mile,walka mile' noveltyevents. By the mid-nineteenth century, these races againsttime and distance had almost disappeared,and the pagesof the sporting presswere now thick withmatch-challenges. Fewof these involved athletesof any calibre, and were usuallybetween local runners, with small bets at stake. They frequently centred on public houses and were often competed for on turnpike roads. In the Lancashire area there were often jumping competitions,sometimesinvolving the useof dumbbells.Indeed, Howard of Chester's 1854 leapof twenty-ninefeet seven inches stillranksas the greatest distanceever cleared in a single jump. Stonehenge's Manual ofBritish Rural Sports (1856)is significantprimarily for its inclusionof a completeprofessional match-racecontract. It isdetailed,shows clearlythat 'starting by consent' was common, and that only if consent proveddifficult to secure woulda pistol beemployed.Bythe finalquarter of the nineteenthcentury,pistol-starting had, understandably,becomestandard practice. By the third quarter of the nineteenth century,a third form of competition had arrived,handicap 'pedestriancarnivals'.These, aided bya burgeoningrailway network. [ xxxi ]