Athletics and Football (extract)

5° ATHLETICS ' Times ' newspaperrecording matches like the one mentioned above between Lieut. Sayers and Captain Astley, and another between Mr. Whaleyand the Hon. Arthur Wellesley, who ran a match for 150 guineas on the Donnybrook Road in 1854. Something was, however,wanting to set athletic meetings going outside schools, colleges, and bodies such as the Honourable Artillery Company, which held its first fixture for its own members in 1858,and the required impetuswas probablygiven by a renewed burst of public excitement over professional pedestrianism in i860 and the following years. In i860 L. Bennett, better known as ' Deerfoot,' a Canadian Indian, ap­ peared on the scene in England, and there begana series of matches between him and the best English pedestrians,which excited the public interest even more than the great period of ten years or so before. The performancesof Bennett, Lang, Siah Albison, Teddy Mills, Jack White, and a score of other celebrities of this period set the public talking again about foot-racing,and in the winterof 1861 the West London Rowing Club held an athletic meeting, thinking that their rowing men might like some hard work and exercise to keep them in train­ ing during the winter season. As far as we can discover,the first 'open race' foramateurs was held in the summer of 1862, whenMr. W. Price, a promoter of pedestrianhandicaps, decided to offer at the HackneyWick grounds a ' handsome silver cup' to be competed for by ' amateurs only,' thinking doubtless that this wouldprove a newattraction to sightseers. The report of this open amateur handicap, whichtook placeon July 26,1862, shows that as a means of provoking speculationin the betting wayit wasrather a failure ; but to amateurs the race is interesting for other reasons. In the first heat the reporter says that the betting was 6 to 4 in favour of Mr. Green, who beat Mr. Johnson, but that ' not much wasdone.' In another heat Mr. Spicer (who belonged, by the way, to the Honourable Artillery Company) started offat mark with Mr. Chinnery, whowasafter­ wards to make so great a name as a holder of manychampion­ ships. On this occasion, however, Mr. Spicer outlasted Mr. Chinnery, and beat him.