Athletics and Football (extract)

98 ATHLETICS championship meeting since its foundation in 1866, the half- mile races were usually competed for by the long-distance runners alone, until Colbeck won the Half-mileChampionship in 1868 ; indeed, in 1877 an Oxford runner won the Half-mile Championshipwith a time of 2 min. 10 sec., which is what the limit man in a handicap can nowachieve. Colbeck's successor in the championship for two years was R. V. Somers-Smith, the Oxonian quarter-miler,after which the Hon. A. L. Pelham attained the honour. Pelham wasthe tallestman whom weever recollect to have seen figure on the running-path. He made his first appearance in London while,we believe, he wasstill a schoolboy at Eton, and being as long and leggy as a colt and some three or four inches over six feet, excited great as­ tonishment by his prodigious strides. At Cambridge he was a contemporary of G. A. Templer, whowas also a fine quarter- miler, and who ran in 1872 a dead heat for the Half-mile Championshipwith T. Christie, the Oxford miler, in what was then the unbeaten time of 2 min. 1 sec.; but in a rajce at Cambridge soon afterwards Pelham eclipsed the performance by beating for the first time 2 minutes over Fenner's path, finishing in the race in front of Templer. Pelham, with his prodigiousstride, was too tall and leggy to spurt, and accord­ ingly was not a first-rate performer at a quarter, and at the same time had not sufficient staying powersfor a mile, so that he never made a good showfor his University,as there is (more's the pity) no half-mile race in the Oxford and Cambridge pro­ gramme. He was purely a half-miler, and undoubtedly the best of his day, and no one until 1876 contrived to repeat his performance of finishing the distance within 2 minutes. A year or two later H. W. Hill appeared in his best form, and showedhimself, whenthoroughlyfit, to be as good at a half-mile as any of the champions, although he occasionally had to succumb at this distance to Walter Slade, the miler. Slade in 1874 was holding undisputed sway over every distance from half a mile to four miles; but twicein the races for the L. A.C. Challenge Cup was beaten by Hill in the autumn. Hill,