Athletics and Football (extract)

i88 ATHLETICS meetings to pick and choose from that something attractive is required to entice him. The usual enticement, we regret to say, is the best and most valuable prize which the finances of the club can stand and which the rulesof the A.A.A. allow. Some years ago the A.A.A.stepped in to try and put a stop to pot-hunting, and limited the value of prizeswhich can be given in handicaps to 10/. icxr., a sum which in our opinion is much more than is sufficient. At the present day, however, prize- getting is so much a businesswith the amateur athlete that the charge of ' pot-hunting,' whicha dozenyears ago wasconsidered discreditable, has nowpracticallyceased to be a reproach at all with the sporting community,which reads with avidity notices in the paper that Mr. A. or Mr. B. has won 60/. worth of prizes ' during the past week.' At the present day secretariesare glad enough to get the entries of men who really keep the prizesthey win and do not, under the mask of amateurism, earn a living by selling their winnings. But our business at present is with the competitors as they are, and not with competitorsas they should be, and we hasten to admit that there are still a few just men in Gomorrah. Partly, however, to keep out the semi-amateur class,and partly to give the handicappers every opportunityof adjusting the starts fairly, every competitor is compelled to send in his entry for a meeting upon a regulation ' entry form.' By filling up and signing this he pledges himself to the assertion that he is an amateur within the meaning of the A.A.A. definition,which is printed on the paper,and he also givesan account of his last three performances in public, stating the amount of his start and the result in each race. If any wilful misstatement is found on these entry forms, the committee of the A.A.A. punishes the offender bysuspensionor disqualifi­ cation. Entries are usually made to closea week before the day of the meeting, to allow the handicappers (for at a club meet­ ing the majority of events are handicaps)a few days' leisure to allot the starts. As a rule, however, when the meeting is on a