Athletics and Football (extract)

88 ATHLETICS afternoon he wonthe Half-Mile Championship in 2 min. 2sec., then a record and at all times a fine performance,and made a good showin the Hundred Yards against the winner, W. M. Tennant. If there ever was an Englishamateur able to hold his own with Myers,Colbeck was probablythe man. The next pre-eminent performer at a quarter-mile after Colbeck was R. Philpot, of Cambridge. Curiously enough, while Oxford was for so long famous for her sprinters,Cam­ bridge produced a long line of famous quarter-milers. Pitman, Ridley, Philpot, Churchill, and Macaulay all came near to Colbeck's time, but could never quite approach it. Of this line, as far as it is possible to judge between men whowere not contemporaries, Philpot, by general consent, was the best ; indeed he was credited with having beaten 50 seconds at Cambridge, although the sporting authorities could never be induced to accept the record. At his first appearance at Lillie Bridge he wasbeaten by R. V. Somers-Smith, of Oxford, as wellas by his colleague,A. R. Upcher, the winning time being 5o4 seconds under exceptionally favourableconditions. How­ ever, in the Inter-University meeting of 1871, Philpot, upon a cold and windy day, covered his quarter in 50^ seconds, run­ ning Colbeck's time veryclose, and in 1872 he won the same race again as well as the championship. Philpot, though not so tall as Colbeck, wasof the same style, tall and strong, and was a good enough sprinter to run J. G. Wilson to a yard in 1871, but he was par excellence a quarter-miler, that distance being his real forte. Philpot, however, at that time would have found no mean opponent in J. C. Clegg,of Sheffield,who during the summer season in the provincescould almostcount on sweeping the board at any meeting of all events from roo to 600 yards. Clegg was a very tall man, hardly so thickly built as Colbeck or Philpot, whose pace, as with Colbeck, came from his stride, but as most of his performances were over grass, the times show nothing of his merits. In 1874 another of the great figures of athletic history,F. T. Elborough, appeared upon the scene, and before his appearance another