Athletics of To-Day 1929

I 68 Athletics of To-day would start in an ordinary run, but for the longer distances, varying from 9 to r2 miles, six or eight picked" couples 11 only were allowed to start. The first half-dozen boys home were allowed a hot supper at the shop, at the club's expense. These "runs 11 culminate in Senior and Junior Steeplechases over very stiff Shropshire country, and the boys are equipped with hedging gloves sewn to the sleeves of their jerseys. At Rugby, where the course crosses water where Clifton Brook runs slow and muddy down a sheltered green valley to meet the Avon, water jumps and a few stiff-set hedges supply the obstacles, and at Bradfield the course follows the valley of the Pang, and the finish is made through about rs ft. of deep water in a trout pool, while at Sedburgh the run is over all of ro or r2 miles of real hill country. The extension of cross-country running beyond the schools and the foundation of the English Cross-Country Championship, however, had their inception with the Thames Rowing Club. Towards the end of r867 a f w m mbers of the club conceived the idea of holding some cro s-country steeplechases, whereby the rowing men might keep th mselves in training during the wint r months. The idea originat d with the late !vir. \Valt r Rye, whose prowess has b en already record d. He drew his inspiration in this particular instance from the description of the Barby Hill Run in Tont Brown's School Days. He was the founder also of the Thames Hare and Hound lub, which was the first of its kind to be founded, so that Mr. Rye was long known as" The ather of aperchasing." The arrang ments for the Thames Handicap St eplechase No r, as it was termed, were, Mr. Rye told m , of a primitive order. The runner were conv y d in an old-fashioned horse omnibus to Beverley Brook on Wimbledon Common (the crucial point in many subsequent Oxford and ambridge ross- ountry contests) and there they changed into running kit as best they could. The race that follow d was 2t miles over swampy ground, run in the dark, but history does not r late who won. Th econd handicap was notable for many reasons. The