Athletics and Football (extract)

CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING years Gibb, George, Rogers, and Coad are brilliant examples of the truth of this statement. It is probably no exaggeration to say, that a hundred men could now be found in paper-chase clubs who could run ten miles in the hour, and a score who could run eleven. How valuable such a body of men would be in time of war for scouts or messengers need hardly be explained, and even when war is not imminent they have their uses. The future of paper-chasing is doubtful. The evils of importing members solely to run in match teams, of running matches round enclosed courses for gate-money, and of winking at, if not tolerating, regular betting by lists, have taken firm root, and have injured it greatly as a sport. The mechani , artisan, or labourer, who used to be barred from competition with gentlemen, is now not only allowed to run, but, if fast, is a welcome member of all country, and many London, clubs, there being only one which insists on all its members being gentlemen by profe sion and education. If cricket recognises class dis- tinction, why should not paper-chasing? The bricklayer or carpenter who can do 'thirty under' for a mile, and to whom 2ol. is a mine of wealth, is too :-tpt to accept that sum from a bookmaker not to try at the 'Chamni o n ~ bip.' Roping is too often overlooked, and treated more as a joke than anything lse. Another feature which has tended to lower the sport, is the ridiculous number of prizes given in teeplcchase., and the 'pewters' and medals presented to the first men in, or first bicyclist in, and so on, in ordinary runs. Men ought to take enough interest in the sport, for the sport's . ake, to come down and run without thes paltry bribes. If they do not are for sport only, let them stop away. The explanation of all this is, that the management of many of the club has got into the hands of men who have had no practical experience of the port, and who simply run them as athletic rather than cro s- ountry lubs, for the sake of the popularity or pre. tige which is supposed to attach to the officials of an athletic lub, though they may have been outsiuers or duffers and be m c c