Athletics and Football (extract)

44 ATHLETICS up the first edition of sports. There is a longer record of servicesagainst the name of James Aitken, beyond winningthe mile race, and being second for the two miles. As a cricketer he played in the Eton eleven, at Oxford in the University eleven against Cambridge in 1849, 1850, and in his College eleven in 1849, 1850,1851. As an oarsman, he rowed against Cambridge at Putney in 1849, in the Universityeight at Henley in 1850, 1851, in a University four at Henley 1850, and in a pair oar with J. W. Chitty at Henley 1851, besides rowing in the O.U.B.C. eight-oared races at Oxford in 1849, i8 5 0 j 1851, and the O U.B.C. fours 1848, 1849. He was ordained soon after leaving the University,and has had neither time nor oppor­ tunity for following up rowing or cricket to any great extent, but he has workedas hard and conscientiously in his parish as he did at No. 4 thwart in the Universityboat, and they say that even now, at lawn tennis, few of the young ones can hold their ownagainst the Rev. James Aitken, rector of Charleywood, in Hertfordshire. ' HalifaxWyatt,another of the performers, was born in the "Duke's Country "—no doubt a point in his favour—andin his youngerdays wasknown to the noble editor of the Badminton Library, both in the hunting-field and on the tented sward, when I.Z. used to playat Badminton. At Oxford he won, as stated, the twomilesand some of the shorter races in the sports. He playedagainst Cambridge in the University eleven 1850, 1851, and in his college eleven in 1849, 1850, 1851. He rowed in the O.U.B.C. eight-oared races in 1849, ^So, 1851, in the O.U.B.C. fours 1849,and O.U.B.C. sculls 1850. Since leaving Oxfordhe has played a great deal of county cricket, in Gloucestershire, Devonshire,and Cheshire,and is an I.Z., M.C.C., Harlequin, &c. He did but little afterwardsin run­ ning, but when quartered with the 4th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, at Limerick, he ran a 100 yards match for 50/. against a Canadian in the 89th Regiment, and beat him. H. Wyatt retired from the Devon Regiment as Lt. Colonel, and has nowfor some years past managedthe Earl of Sefton's