Athletics and Football (extract)

I PAPER-CHASING AND unlike those which befell the Irishman's knife, come to be known as the Blackheath Harriers, and have a pretty country, a large number of members under a very energetic management, and are by descent the second oldest English paper-chase club. They and the South London Harriers, the next best known club running south of the Thames (between the two a ceaseless feud has always existed), suffered much from the undisciplined zeal of early secretaries, who, not having the faintest knowledge of the 'language of the fields,' used to make themselves supremely ridiculous in the eyes of those who had by the con- stant use of such word as 'saplings,' while referring to young harriers, and so on, being obviously ignorant of their real meaning. In the north of London the Spartan Harriers long reigned supreme, but lost their ablest man both as a runner and a secretary when H. M. Oliver left for Birmingham. His advent there, where he was received with open arms, had the result of ·starting, or rather greatly pushing forward, paper-chasing in the midlands. ·whether his administrative ability operated for the general benefit of the sport is, however, an 01 en question among those who know anything of the subject, the general impression being that the eagerness >Yith whi h men are caught up into clubs 1 and imported into crack teams has spoiled the old feel- ing of bonft fide competition. Still, as trained teams are mostly composed of men in the same social position as professional cricket and football players, there is no doubt that the Moseley Harriers and the Birchfield Harri rs are not often beaten, especially by gentlemen teams who do not go away to train and who pay their own expenses. Th re had been matches between teams of various clubs before 1876 (the T. H. and H. had two matches with the Gentlemen of Hampstead inNovember 187o), but it was not till this year that the first real championship race was started, though t The most ludicrous example of this is that a Norfolk fanner, who never does anything but •sprint,' is pompously announced as a Blackhenth llan ier, with which club he has never run. i , I '