Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC GOVERNMENT 229 the two Universities,is so identical, that it can hardly be of any advantage to giveseparate sketches of both; the writerwill, therefore, in the main give an account of his Oxford reminis­ cences. The Cambridge athletes formed themselves into a club in 1863, and their home has always been the cricket-groundat Fenner's, which they share in common with the University Cricket Club, the latter using the ground and pavilionin the summer term, and the athletes in the autumn and spring terms, the cinder-path of course running round the cricket pitch. Until the end of 1876 the Oxonian cinder-track wasout in the fieldsat Marston, quite a mile from the centre of Oxford,and in some verylow-lyingmeadows,whichmade the track and grass decidedly swampy. In the next year, however, the Oxonians removed to their present ground in the Iffley Road. The University athletic clubs are open to every member of the Universitywithout any formalities of proposingand seconding, but every one who wishes to train upon the club grounds, or run in the Freshmen's or University Sports, must pay his subscription to the University club and become a member. There is, however, at Oxford, and we believe also at Cam­ bridge, an exception. For a limited time before any college givesits sports a memberof that college, who is not a member of the University club but wishes to have a few days' practice upon the ground, can obtain permission through an arrangement between his collegeand the University club. As a general rule, however, those members of the colleges who run at their college sports are members of the club. At Oxford, in the writer's time, the onlyformality necessaryfor membership was to go to Rowell's, the silversmith's,in ' The High,' and pay the subscriptionover the counter. The athletic season begins immediatelyafter the commence­ ment of the October term, and at Oxford after luncheon the athletes in twosand threes may be observed wendingtheir way over Magdalen Bridge to the ground. Beforelong they may be seen scampering also in twos and threes over the path or