Athletics of To-Day 1929

- -~ -- - ---- - ~----~ x86 Athletics of To-day an Oxford and Cambridge record, and the long jump at 21ft. Bt ins. A few days later he took the English Champion– ship at 6ft. Mr. Brooks, who is still alive, has kindly supplied me with a lot of information about early days. When he disposed of his own and Glazebrook's record the excitement was tre– mendous, for up to that time no one had believed that 6 ft. would ever be beaten, but nowadays we are beginning to ask ourselves if one day 7ft. will not be reached. The jumping was from cinders on the Old Marston Ground, but there were plenty of puddles about, and Sir Montague Shearman has stated that in one of them alighted the top hat of the O.U.A.C. Honorary Treasurer, which he threw up in his enthusiasm for Brooks's great leap. A fortnight later, when the present Inter-Varsity record was made at Lillie Bridge and Brooks walked back, amidst tremendous applause, under the bar he had cleared, the weather was fair and warm and the grass take-off quite firm, but at the English Championship M eting three days later at the same ground rain fell in torrents and the take-off was sodden and very heavy. It is noteworthy that 6ft. was nev r again cleared at the Oxford and Cambridge Sports until J. D. S. Pendlebury, C.U.A.C., did exactly that height in 1927, nor was it reached in the English Championships until P. Davin, an Irishman, did 6 ft. ot in. in 188r. In jumping Brooks ran straight at the bar and states that his difficulty generally lay in getting his elbow and arm over. His approach was at a pace just ov r a walk, and his spring was clean into the air with legs well tucked up in front. His feet he could throw over almost any height, and his body he managed to carry clear with a forward j rk, which landed him on his toes, a very necessary adjunct to style in the days when there were no sand pits to land in. It may be remarked that in 1873, Mr. Brooks represented Oxford against Cambridge and England against Scotland at Rugby footb 11. Judging from a very informative book of press cuttings, which has been lent to me by Mr. C. L. Lockton, who was himself no mean high jumper, there was a rapid improvement