Athletics of To-Day 1929

6 Athletics of To-day The great benefit which athletic sport really derived from the activities of Captain Barclay is to be found in his practice of matching himself against amateurs. This led to the holding of many amateur matches, up to about r825, at Uxbridge, or on the Newmarket Road, or at Lord's ricket Ground, and I believe th re were regular amateur athletic sports meetings held at the Royal Military College, andhurst, about that p riod. After the first quarter of the last century athl tics among amateurs waned a little, but pedestrianism still went on. In r825 one, Jam s Metcalf, gave another, ]. Halton, 20 yards start in a mile and beat him in the record time of 4 mins. 30 secs. This record stood until r84o, in which y ar \V. Matthews, of Birmingham, covered the distance in three seconds faster time. Mr. Donald Walker's book of British Manly Exercises, published in r834, sugg sts that the general standard of running at that time approximated to 440 yards in 6o s cs., a mil in 5 mins. and 2 mil in ro mins. Of the jumps he says that a first rate long jumper will cl ar 20ft., a r ally good high jumper 5 ft. 6 ins. and an xtraordinary one 6ft. Unfor– tunately I have not b en able to secure any satisfactory evidence as to the distanc s achieved by the weight-putters and hammer-throwers of the pre-championship p riod. Between the years r830 and r85o all things were moving together towards the great wave of enthusiasm for amat ur athletics which was soon to sweep ov r England. In r 38 well-known amateurs were running under such fanciful p eudo– nyms as u Neversweat," u The printer" and u prightly," but a few years later the fashion had changed and m n \ re not ashamed to run under th ir rightful names. P destrianism was now in its palmi st day , and in r85 , when Hayes beat T tlow over four miles on th Aintree racecourse, it is said that there was pr sent pretty w ll the whole sporting population of Liverpool, Manchester, and ewcastle. So great a public interest in the doings of the professionals encouraged the pirit of emulation among the amateurs, and we begin to h ar of numerous amateur athletic me tings taking place. There were