Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS 119 16^ seconds. In the same year he won the championship, a performancewhich he repeated in 1872. He was, we believe, never defeated in a hurdle race, and, if our recollection is right, wasa taller and heavier man than the successfulhurdler usually is. He ran also in a style somewhat different from that of many of his precursors, his right leg not being doubled back at all, but hanging behind him, as he strode clean over the hurdle. The best University hurdler of 1871 and 1872was E. S. Garnier, who ran with great dash, but wasa trifle too heavy to fly over the sticks. Garnier,who wasa thick-setman, also represented his University at hammer-throwing—an un­ usual circumstance, hammer-throwing and hurdling being almost the opposite poles of athletic sport. Garnier wonthe championship in 1871, but in the following year he met Stirling at Lillie Bridge,and the Cambridge runner beat him. In the followingyear Upcher made his first appearance, and probably he was as good as Stirling. He wasa strong muscular man, but not heavyin spite of his strength, and was a fine natural broad jumper, being able to leap over hurdles, hedges, and other obstacles withgreat agilitywhen in boots and great-coat. He practised hurdling exclusively upon his own system,and wasin his time regarded as the best exponent of the art ever known. He wonthe Inter-'Varsity and ChampionshipHurdles in 1873 an d i 874, and so great was the belief in his powers that the astonishment was unbounded when, at the Inter- 'Varsity meeting of 1875, a Cambridge man, A. B. Loder, was seen to be holding Upcher in the hurdle race. Neck and neck the pair raced over the jumps and reached the tape apparently together, but the judge decided that Loder had won by a few inches,amidst the wild cheers of the Cambridge partisans. Three days afterwards the pair met over the same course in the championship, when another neck-and- neck race resulted in a six-inch victoryfor Upcher. This, we believe, was Upcher's last appearance on the path, and the next year Loder had matters all his own wayat both meetings. Loder was a trifle taller than Upcher, and was a trifle faster