Athletics and Football (extract)

204 ATHLETICS further advantage, thatthe handicappers throughout the country all adopted the same standards of merit for the imaginary scratch men, and it thus became veryeasyto handicap a stranger from another district, by simplyfinding out upon what mark his own local handicapper considered this stranger should be placed. The Sheffield system, however, was swept away by the growing desire, both of the public and of the men them selves, to see 'bests on record' accomplished at meetings. Several instances occurred of the real scratch man in a handicap starting, under the 'Sheffield system,' with some yards from 'scratch' and winning the race with a performance which would have been a record had the wholedistance been covered. The 'crack' who had done a record performance was thus deprived of the credit of it, as it was obviously impossibleto establish a 'record' for 148^ yards, 436 yards, or 596 yards, in cases wherethe scratchman had had a fewyards start fromthe imaginary 'Sheffielder.' The Sheffield system wassoon given up at Oxford—we believe it was never tried at Cambridge— and it was abandoned by the L.A.C. in 1877. At the present day it is entirely unknown in the South, and rarely, if ever, employedelsewhere. No meeting now is without an official time-keeper,and at some important gatherings, as we have seen, there are three such functionaries, all of whom time each race. There are, of course, manyadvantages in havingeach contest timed. The athletes themselves and the spectators like to know whether the races have been fast or slow; and for purposes of future handicapping, or of comparing the worthiesof one period with those of another, timing is indispensable. Indispensable, however, though it may be for certain ends, timing is merelya means, and not in any way an end in itself: a fact the present generation of athletes—which has simply gone mad upon ' times' and ' record's—appears to have forgotten. Bysaying that the athlete of to-day considers timing an ' end' andnot a means, we mean that he thinks it is a finedisplay of skill on his part to cover so much ground in so little time, without taking