Athletics and Football (extract)

A MODERN CHAMPIONSHIP MEETING 67 'Varsity runners. Of later years, since the championship in 1880 was altered from the spring to the summer, but few of the 'Varsity runners have competed, partly, no doubt, because it is awkward to train in the summer terms at Oxfordor Cam­ bridge, but partly, too, from the fact that the 'Varsity cracks are rarely good enough now to meet the highly trained and seasoned athletes who are the pick of the amateurs of the present day. At the championship of 1886 it became clear that the supremacy of the path had passed awayfor the present fromthe metropolitanto the provincialrunners. The difference betweenthe old style of London athlete, or the 'Varsityathlete, and the modern athlete fromthe provincesis not one of locality nor yet of degree ; it is a differenceof class, of which we shall have to speak again ; but the Stamford Bridge championship of 1886 shows that, until another development takes place, three-quarters of our amateur champions will be drawn from the masses.