Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS 121 part in hurdle races when the hurdles werea few inches below the regulation height, his speed over the obstacles was some­ thing extraordinary. At a hurdle handicap at Catford Bridge, at the meeting of the Private Banks,we saw him start 24 yards behind the scratchman, and clear the 144 yards and ten hurdles (belowthe regulation height) in 18 seconds. In the champion­ ship of 1880, however,Lockton probablylost his head, and came to grief in the Hurdles, besides failing in the Hundred Yards. Lockton was never in his best form again after 1880, and when Lawrence retired Palmer again won the championship in 1882 and 1883. For the last few years the Universitieshave not pro­ duced a hurdler of the calibre of Lawrenceor Palmer, and the centre of hurdling activityseems to have shifted to Notting­ ham, which has produced in turn three fine performers—F. F. Cleaver,C. W. Gowthorpe, and C. F.Daft, the present champion. Cleaver for some years, in the absence of the 'Varsity cracks, used to sweep the board at the chief provincialmeetings, being veryfast, although a bit clumsy in his jumps. After his retire­ ment and that of Palmer, Gowthorpe,like Cleaver a member of the Notts Forest Football Club, won the championshipof 1884, and Daft, the champion of 1885 and 1886, also repre­ sented the same club. Here, as at the Universities,is seen the value of a ' tradition' inproducing skilful performers. There weregood hurdlers in Nottingham long before Cleaver,one of them, S. W. Widdowson, havingearned a great reputation in the provinces a dozen years ago. Occasionallyin the provinces there are hurdle races of 300 yards or a quarter of a mile where the runners have the oppor­ tunity of showing their natural and not artificiallycultivated abilities in contests which combine sprinting and jumping. Such races, however, are unfortunatelyso fewand far between that they can hardly be said to give scope to a special class of runner. Perhaps a new fashion maysome day call into exist­ ence a class of short-distance steeplechasers.