Athletics of To-Day 1929

12 Athletics of To-day athletic meeting between Oxford and Cambridge, and in r864 the first meeting between the rival universities took place on the hrist Church Cricket Ground at Oxford. The result was a draw, but the figures are interesting: THE OxFORD AND CAMBRIDGE SPORTS, r864 roo yards, B. S. Darbyshire, Ox., ro 2 secs. 440 yards, B. S. Darbyshire, Ox., 56 secs. r mile, C. B. Lawes, Cam., 4 min. 56 secs. 120 yards Hurdles, A. W. T. Daniel, Cam., 17! secs. 200 yards Hurdles, E . Wynne-Finch, Cam., 26! secs. Steeplechase (about 2 miles), R. . Garnet, Cam., ro mins. High Jump, F. H. Gooch, Ox., 5 ft. 5 ins. Long Jump, F. H. Gooch, Ox., r8 ft. The Steeplechase and 200 yards Hurdles were decided in that year only. The hot Put was added in r865 and still survives. Throwing the ricket Ball was also added in the same year but only decided that once. The year r864 is still further notable in that the first regularly constituted athletic club, the Mincing Lane A.C., held its first sports meetings and the ivil Servants also promoted their first meeting which is as popular a fixture in 1929 as it was in r864. In the space of the next two years the cult of athletics and the custom of holding athletic sports meetings spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom. By the b ginning of r866 the amateurs had severed all connection with the pro£ ssional pedestrians, in the spring of that year the Mincing Lane A. . changed its name to its present style and became known as the London A. ., and at the same period th re was formed in London, mainly of old Univ rsity n1en, the Amateur Athletic lub, which may well be regard d as the precursor of our more recently instituted Achilles lub. This A.A.C., according to its constitution, was formed to u supply the want of an established ground upon which