An Athletics Compendium

B 6 6 - 7 1 biographies <&Autobiographies what Scotch Games are like.... The starts are often paced out, and thmeember of the banwdho performs on the drum often officiaitnetshe capacityof starter, his instrument takintghe part ofthe pistol .... The best known "peds" as a rule "stand in" with one another, which means they agree to divide among themselves any prize-money thsechool may win. The poor "locals", asa rule, have to cboentent with whatlefist.' Downer, suspended from amateur competition in 1396, wasone of the first'shamateurs', picking up appearance money at the rural handicap meetings which provided the main competitive diet in the Victorian period. The Scottish handicap circuit had its equivalents iEn ngland, Walesand Ireland and on the East Coast of the United Statwehse,re anothergreat sprinter, AF. Duffey, was suspended in like manner a decade later. Downleikr,e many ex-amateurs such as Bredin, W.(3. George andShrubb, foundit difficult to make a living in professional athletics, though exceptionally successful in match races. He died of alcoholism in1912. Edwards, Jonathan 66 A time to jump: theauthorised biography of Jonathan Edwards / MalcolmFolley. London: HarperCollins, 2000. xi, 260p; illus ISBN: 0-00-274031-1 BL: YC.2000.a.8556 Published before his Olympic triple jump victory in Sydney, this absorbinbgook examines Edwards's long career fromISSI to 1999 showinhogw he reconciled his strong Christian beliefs with the demands of top-level sport. The athlaedteds his own views o'tnhe Sunday question' anin appendix. Elliott, Herb 67 The golden mile: the Herb Elliott story as told to Alan Trengove; foreword by Percy Cerutty. London: Cassell, 1961. xiii, 178p; illus BL: 10712.1.32 Elliott's autobiography represents an outstanding contribution to athletics literature. Written in workmanlike and unsentimental prose, the review of Elliott's career provides a convincing and inspiring account of what it means to become the worldf'isnest runner; andthe descriptions Pofrtsea trainingt,he Svengali-cum-Dali presence ofCerutty andthe joy of good company provide excellent relief between the narratives ohfis victories. 'AI smounted the dais to receive my gold medal from MHr.ugh Weir, of Australia, I found myself doing an emotional somersault. Utop the Games my attitutdoewards athleticwsas that it was fundamentally a sport for individuals, not teams. Athletes trained, made sacrifices and pushed their bodies to thelimits of endurance for the personal satisfaction they achieved. Like scientists, athletes, I considered, should feel unshackled by national obligations. Theyran as individualst,rying to create new standards for the human race; it was immaterial in which country they webreorn. I had trained fotrhe 1500 metreass an individual and whMenr Weir placed the medal round my neck my greatest thrill should have been from my triumph as aindividual. Butwhen the Australian flag was hoisted and the National Anthem wasplayed the pridethat filled mhyeart was for mycountry, notmyself. Thetears welleudp and I realised I'd been fooling myself. I am an Australian and I'd been running for my country no matter how strongly cold reason toldme I'd been running for myself.' Foster, Brendan 68 Brendan Foster / Brendan Foster and Cliff Temple. London; Heinemann, 1978. 220p; illus ISBN: 0-434-26910-7 (cased)• 0-434-26911-5 (pbk) BL: X.620/17822 • X.611/8158 A detailed biography of the former world recohrodlder for 3000m,it includes extractfsrom his training diary from ISSS to 1976, and an appendix of his competitions from December 1962 to April 1975. Francom, Septimus 'Seppy' 69 Wirral gleanings: including smuggling and 'The Cave', well sinking, threeWirral hills, Wirral's Olympic Marathon runner, injustice Binirkenhead and a wartime fisherman / Greg Dawson. Irby: Dawson, 1998. 53p; illus, maps; pbk ISBN: 0-9522598-3-4 BL:YK.2000.b.l300 Francom competed in the marathon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. The race was won byMKceAn rthur of South Africa, the onlyBritish-born runner everto win the Olympic Marathon. Fry, Charles Burgess 70 C. B. Fry: the manand his methods/ Arthur W. Myers; with a preface by G. H. R. Dabbs. Bristol: Arrowsmith, 1912. xi, 189p BL: 010854.de.31 71 Life worth living: some phases aonfEnglishman / C. B. Fry. London: Eyre & Spottiswood1e9,39. 423p; illus; index BL: 10859.d.5 The autobiography of perhaps the greatest all-round English sportsman. Fry's absorbing story ranges from his schooldays Ratepton to hims eeting withHitler in Berlin. Athletics is naturally only one aspect of the stop/, but his greatest performances are vividly described. 'My housemaster, Mr Forman, was the only coach I ever had in athletics, antdhat oonnly one occasion. Oneafternoon he happened to becrossing the school paddock when I was practising the long jump on the rough turf into an elementary pit. He stopped for a few minutes, mtoel Iddid not jump high enough, took off his black mackintosh, and made a heap of it between the take-off and the pit. The mackintosh frightened me into jumping much higher. That wasthe onlypiece of coaching I ever remember receiving in athletics tinhe wholeof my career. Itis rather interesting that up at Oxfordwhen I jumped over 23ft andid a world s recordin the longjump I [ 4 8 ]