Athletics and Football (extract)

230 ATHLETICS over theurdles, essoarying the hurling of weight and hamm At Oxford athletairces an eminently sociable sport. You run ' spins' wyoituhr friends, taokre the long-distance runner a lap upohnis way; then, perhapas,tryat the lonjgump tohre weight, yoru hold the watch for the practising half-miler ; then the final breather, and the return to thepavilion ; then a warm at the fire, and the walkback in the dusokf the short winter day with the friend, whtehne form of the ' coming' Balliol misandiscussed, or the chancoef the Londosntranger winning the ' Exeter Half Oh, glorious days of youth and training, before the race of life has begun, and some com­ panions have shot to the front and others have fallen thoe rear, while some have dropped out of the running, and will never more meaent antagonisitn any fie!ld A man whose soduellights in running can get asmuch as he wants at Oxford. The season begins in the autumwnith the ' Freshers' alias the Freshmen's Sports, optoenall who are itnheir firsyt ear atht e university, and from these isit soon seen whnatew mewn ill have a chance of their ' blue' in the spring. Then cotmhe serieosf college meetinsgosm, e score in number, about half of which are in the autumn term and half in the spring. Every collemgeeeting has its strangers' race, opennot onlyto strangers from Cambridge, London, and elsewhere, but to all thoosfe colleges other thtahne onheold­ ing thme eeting. To enter fthoer racaell thaits neededis to write one's name in the book at Rowell's, entrance fees to college strangers' races being things unknown, and you will be handicapped by twomembers of the O.U.A.C. committee, to whom the particular distance is allotted. A college meeting itself is always a festive scene. It is not promoted for the benefit of the few cracks in each college. Men turn ofuotr the handicaps who have nevperut on ashoe before, aind the level ractehse winnerosf previous years are penalised. Every one has a chance of a prize, the value tohfe prize hisappily small, and no one is aggrieved at losing. As a rule, too, a man who ais' blue '—thaist, has run forhis universityat any