Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC GOVERNMENT 235 omit the word ' Limited') as a Companyunder the Companies Acts, with a liability limited to a small guarantee by each member. It is not too much to say of the L.A.C. that in times gone past it collected, formed, and brought out all the athletic capabilitiesof the metropolis; and it would have been a bad day for genuine amateurism had the club failed to weatherthe storm of 1883. Besides the L.A.C. there are many paper-chasing clubs around London whichcultivate flat-racingin addition, and may be considered as athletic clubs quite apart from their functions as promoters ofcross-country racing. Two of these, the South London Harriers and the Blackheath Harriers, are old-estab­ lished clubs, and the former owns a cinder-path of its own at Balham. All the paper-chasing clubs round London have a strong esprit de corps, which occasionally, we regret to observe, manifestsitself in the expression of ill-will towards rivals. The L.A.C., however, occupies a different position from them all, having amongst its roll nearlyall the leading London athletes of the last twenty years,and affordinga centre and a ground for the meetings of mostof the others. There is little that need be said of the other clubs through­ out the country which hold athletic meetings. Fewof them are athletic clubs in the same sense of the word as the Univer­ sity clubs or the L.A.C. In a country district it is obviously out of the question for a club to exist upon athletics apart from other kinds of manlypastime. NeitherManchester, Liverpool, nor Birmingham has a club which ownsa running ground and encourages athletic practice all the year round as does the leading London institution. In purely country districts the athletic meetings are promoted and managed by the local cricket, football, or paper-chasing club, or by a committee which is got together annually for the purpose of holding a meeting, and except for the purposes of that particular meeting has no corporate existence. Many of the large provincialtowns, such as Huddersfield, have clubs with a permanent existence jointlydevoted to cricket and athletics,as wellas other sports.