Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS Slade's retirement. Masonalways ran with consummate judg­ ment, and had a fineturn of speed in the middle or at the end of a race, as well as a great deal of doggedpluck. In one ten-mile handicap, where he started at scratch with W. E. Fuller, he was compelledto stop over and over again from stitch, but with undaunted perseverance he refreshed himself with nips of brandy, and eventuallygetting rid of his enemy, went off again at a great pace, overhauledFuller and passedhim with ease. In the Four MileChampionshipof 1876, however. Mason met an­ other runner of similar staunchness, Albert Goodwin,of Oxford. Goodwin had made a great reputation in earlylife as a sprinter, hurdler, and jumper, and went to Oxford late in life as a married man witha family. His ageand matrimonialcondition, however, did not prevent his becoming the best three-miler Oxfordever sent to Lillie Bridge up to 1876. In the Four Mile Championship therewasa finerace betweenGoodwinand Mason, and each, knowing that he could sprint at the finish, waited upon the other; but the Oxonian wasa bit too fast for Mason at the end, and won in slow time. In 1879 the Spring Championshipwas won by B. R. Wise, of Oxford, and the Summer Championship byW. G. George. As George is still before the public as the best professional milerof his day, he hardlyneeds a description. He is a tall, thin man witha prodigiousstride, whicharises fromhis bringing his hips into play more than any distance-runner we have ever seen, and years of training and practice have cultivated his stay­ ing powersto an extraordinarydegree. During his career as an amateur, which lasted from 1879 to the end of 1884, he had only two serious rivalson the path at a mile or upwards. In 1882 he started very unfit for the MileChampionship, having only just recoveredfrom illness,and wasbeaten byWise. The latter, not a strong man, was a tall light weight witha springy stride, a successful runner from the fact of his knowing exactly whatamount of trainingwould suit his constitution. He took no hard practice at all, going only short spins, and sometimes knocked off workaltogether. As a result he came to the post