Athletics and Football (extract)

218 ATHLETICS rule, excluded; although, as a matter of fact, either from acci­ dent or from design, their entries were often accepted. The bulk of the London runners, although of quite a different class from the provincials,were clerks or businessmen who were tied to their desks during the day, and were unable to train except in the evening. The only chance, therefore,that manyof them had of getting fit for a spring championship in March or the beginning of April necessitated their practising in the dark. From different reasons, therefore, in London and the provinces athletics had become a summer pastime, while at Oxford and Cambridge they were pursued mainly in the winter months. The three University terms are short, and the various sports have all to be accommodated ; so the arrangement both at Oxfordand Cambridge is, that athletics and football are culti­ vated in the two winter terms, the summer term being reserved for cricket and boating (and examinations). It becameobvious, therefore, that a summer championship would place the Uni­ versity men at a disadvantage, while a spring fixture would give them a decided 'pull.' Soon after the opening of the Stamford Bridgegrounds, the L.A.C., then under the manage­ ment of Messrs. James and William Waddell, placed itself at the head of the agitation for the summer championship ; and, after much fruitless negotiation and discussion, the L.A.C. runners in a body 'boycotted' the spring championship at Lillie Bridge in the spring of 1879, and it wasaccordingly con­ fined to the University men and a few provincial athletes, in­ cluding Webster, the walker, and Warburton, the long distance runner. In the summer of 1879 an opposition championship was held on the Stamford Bridge ground, under the manage­ ment of a committee consisting almost entirely of London runners, together with some few secretaries of clubs from the Midlands ; but the Northerners, who had by that time formed themselves into a Northern Counties AthleticAssociation, held aloof, as they were standing out for the contention that a championship meeting should be open to any amateur, of what­ ever social position, provided he had never run for money.