Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC SPORTS IN ENGLAND 5i On August 30 in the same year Mr. Price offered purses for two more open races at a quarter and three-quarters of a mile. In the former, ' Mr. Martin,' whomathletes will perhaps be surprised to hear was no other than the veteran Civil Service walker, Mr. C. M. Callow, wasone of the competitors, as also was Mr. Walter Rye, afterwards champion walker, who, however, appeared in his own name. Another of the com­ petitors was Mr. C. H. Prest (afterwardsa celebrated amateur, but of somewhat doubtful ' amateurity'), who ran under the name of Baker. There was at the time a prevalent idea that an amateur athlete should conceal from the world his taste for athletics, as the report of this meeting in a sporting paper mentions the runners who had appeared in the mysterious style as Mr. R e, Mr. N m, and so forth. Possibly, however, the reporter, acting on the principle ' omne ignotum pro magnifico,' thought to lend importance to the budding amateurs by thus throwing an air of mysteryover their names. At this second meeting at Hackney Wick, Mr. Chinnery, in the three-quarter mile race, had again to succumb to the redoubt­ able Mr. Spicer, although receivingten yards' start from him. It is not until the next year that the strayLondon amateurs made any effort to formthemselves into a club. In June of the year1863 certain gentlemen, including in their numbers some of those who had figured at the West London Rowing Club meetings and Price's handicaps, founded the Mincing Lane Athletic Club, calling the club after that well-known trade centre, in which the majority of the founders were engaged in business. In 1864 they held their first meeting at the West London grounds at Brompton on April 9, but so little attention was paid to it that we cannot find that a report of the meeting appeared in any paper. Another meeting was held on May 21 of the same year, in which Mr. Chinnery won the mile race, and on that occasion a full report of the pro­ ceedingswaspublished in all the sporting journals. During the year two challenge cups for 220 yards and 10 miles walking raceswere presented to the club, which has ever since been