Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS of both seem to be fairlygood ones, and the cut certainlydoes justice to Mr.Webster's freshnessand vigour. The Oxfordmen of that day, however,aver that Webster wasnot as good a runner as J. W. Laing, of Oxford, whowon the Mileand ran a dead- heat with C. H. Long, a Cantab, in the Two Miles Race at the Inter-'Varsity sports in 1866. Laing did not start in the Championshipin 1866,and that race fell to C. B. Lawes, who had been unplaced in the Inter-'Varsity Mile. The third man in the championship of 1866 was destined to eclipse the fame of all his predecessors. This was W. M. Chinnery, of the L.A.C., still well known as an active patron of all sorts and conditions of sport. Chinnery won his first championship in 1868,and his last in 1871,and in '68 and '69 wonboth the One and Four MilesRaces at the championshipmeeting Although in the latter years of his career he was run very close by J. Scott, of the same club, he managed to beat that athlete in a mile at one of the L.A.C. meetings in 1870, this being, we believe,the only occasion upon whichtheymet at that distance. During his career, Chinnery was the leading figure at all long races : he was tall, weighed, weshould say, over 10 stone, and ran with a long easystride, but with verylittle dash. Probably he was so seldom pressed that he got into a monotonous way of running, relyingon his stride and stay,and not on any other tactics. His opponent, Scott, was thought to be better at four miles than a mile, althoughwe think that both he and Chinnery werecapable of beating 4 min. 30 sec. at the latter distance when put to it; and at that time, 4 min. 30 sec. wasconsidered an almost superhumanperformance,as the runners usuallywent offslowly, and waited upon one another until half-way. Scott wasa shorter and slighter man than Chinnery, and ran with a much lighter tread, holding himself more erect than his great rival,and shooting his legsout in front of him. Another sterling good man, whowas a contemporary of Chinnery's, was Syden­ ham Uixon, of the Civil Service. Dixon, although a lighter weight, had, we think, greater pace than Chinnery, but the latter could outstay the Civil Service runner. From 1868 to