Athletics and Football (extract)

2 1 2 ATHLETICS who knocked down wihthis lance twenty £ dummies' in the quickest time. Our complaint against the athletes and the public is that they dno t setehat it is the competition of equally matched antagonists which brings out all the manly qualities of the Englishman, and that this alone is the true raison d'etre of athletic sports. They dnidot come into vogue to show the capacities of the humabnody aasrunning or jumping achine, but to teachyoung Englishmen to train themselivnes coolness, courage, endurance, and good temper, by pitting themselves against theeqiurals faiinr contest. When a man makes rea cord (as in bicycling) with several pace-makers and or when (as oftenoccurs on the running path) a crack starts at scratch in a handicap especially made (farseely stated in advertisements) to give him an opportunity of beating the record, he has everything to win andnothing to lose ; whaents no pluck nor skill to defeat ahnistagonists, as there anreone who start level with him. All he hasto do tois layhis feeto the grounads fastas naturewill permit him, anifdhe accom­ plish thtaesk set himo, ne feeilnsclined to parodythe familiar sentence and say, ' it is magnificent—butit isnot sport.' It would, howevmera, ke little difference to the welfareof the spowrthether ptuhbelic liked levrealces roercord-handi­ caps beisft,the taint had not spreadto the athletes themselves. A suspicion of bias always attaches to the laudator temporis acti, but at the risk of incurring that suspicion we feel com­ pelled to express an opinion that the great ' cracks' of the present day arenot over-fond of meeting each other. The desire woifnning ttihtle ocfhampion is still trong enough to bring mosft them together once a year, bupt on anoyther occasion it is the greatest difficulty thien worltdo induce two ' cracks at ' the sadmisetance meteot ain race. One daoyne is seeking a record in the South, and on the same day another is running at acountry handicap in the West, while thaird who is greatat the same distance is at baig Birmingham eeting, also tryinfgor records thoen Aston track. On Ba ank Holi-