Athletics and Football (extract)

I ---- PAPER-CHA l1YG AND J. Shearman, and other , we have only known one ab,tainet (Coad) who was anywhere in the first flight of cross-country runners. 'The tea, which i usually followed by a formal meet- ing 1 and a 'sing-song,' usP.d to close the evening very plea~ santly. Too often, nowaday·, however, the card-playin.g which has spoiled and ruined so many a young athlete is introduced by a selfish few, who are not satisfied with simple sociability. The round game of spelling-bee, in which the sport i to close a word as oon as po sible again t your left-handed neighbour, is, however, very popular, and may be said to have originated at Roehampton. \Vith a room full of athletes, friendly chaff often lead to matches, and two or three times we remember offhand races coming off late at night, one especially of sixteen miles (twice round the Thames long course), which resulted in the scratch man coming to the front about 300 yards only from home, and both men reaching the goal smothered with mud and bleeding from innumerable scratches. f the use of paper-cha ing and, in moderation, of cross- country steeple hasing and team racing, there an be no doubt. To be a good runner over country, a man must be abstemious, patient, and good-tempered. A sprint r may indulge up to a certain point both in moke and drink, but woe betide, the ordinary long-distance runner who takes too much of one or the other before a hard race. Lenning was an example to the contrary, for he seldom had a pipe out of his mouth wh n he finished ftrst for four con erutive years, but he was an exception that prov d the rule, and nobody knows what he might have done had he not smoked. He was also very fond of all sorts of pastry, which cannot be recommended to runners as a rule. That ross-country work has heightened the standard of long-distance running immensely i certain, for not only are all time· from two miles up mu h faster than of yore, but they have all been made by men who arc notoriously cross-country runners; in fa t, it would be hard to find a man in the first flight who i · not a member of some paper-chase lub or another. Of late l .For the election of nt:w members, and other business. ,... ! I ; : li I•