Athletics and Football (extract)

'• 11 ·,, ., I "·, I - -~ --- 37-l PAPER-CHASitYG AND arrangement of Thames Handicap Steeplechase No. r, 1 as it was called, were primitive in the extreme, and, indeed, the whole affair wa treated more as a joke than anything else. The competitors were taken up to the starting place on ·wimbledon Common-the edge of the Beverley Brook by the bridge in a bus, and had to dress how they could, and the race was run in the dark over about z! miles of the roughest and boggiest part of the Common, then very different indeed, as to its surface, from what it has now become after recent drainage. Still, there were a dozen starters out of twenty entries, and the affair being the first cross-country steeplechase (not being at a school) that had ever taken place, attracted much attention in the athletic world, which was then getting fairly sure of its foundation after its five y ars of actual existence. 'The next race was made an open event, and attracted over fifty entries and twenty-four starters, the scratch man being "\V. M. Chinnery, who did not, howev r, come to the post, though he afterwards ran regularly with us. Considerable interest was felt in this race, from the fact that two or three old public schoolboys took part in it, and notably Hawtrey of Eton, Rugby and Marlborough also sending representatives ; but, as at most other sports, the native ockney proved equal to the occasion, 2 and early training did not have the effect of showing any superiority in the old boys over the Londoners. The race was one of the finest ever seen, eight men being together at the cross roads- 300 yard. from home-King beat- ing "\iVebster by little over a yard, while Chappell, fifteen yards off, was only half a yard in front of Hawtrey. The .fine finish was no doubt due to the men not knowing how fast they could go, and so massing together; for the winner took 12.55 for zi} miles of easy country, which wilJ not for a moment bear comparison with the times of to-day. 1 Our last race wasT. H. S. ~o. 1-HJ. ~ Foreigners do not seem to take to the game kindly, and Karoniare, the full-blood Indi an, who came over with the La Crosse team, was beaten fairly and squarely by C. 11. Mason, then our crack runner.