Bredin on Running & Training

102 RUNNING AND TRAINING. the grounds, so that the amount of money that can be gained is trifling, and necessitates the employment of many confederates to make it worth the trouble . Perhaps half-a-dozen times might represent all the occasions in which I gambled, directly or indirectly, on my own or any other runner's chances of winning a race at amateur athletic sports, so perhaps my views on this subject are not of much account; but I will cite one instance of what I believe to be the general state of affairs in this respect. At Huddersfi.eld sports in r896-a meeting attracting usually some ro,ooo spectators, the majority of whom are composed of the artisan class, who, both in Yorkshire and Lancashire, always seem to have a few spare sovereigns to back their fancy with at any sport-one of the competitors from London, just before his heat was decided, asked me to back him, handing me ten shillings for that purpose. A friend said," Double it and I'll stand in half." I added ten shillings of my own, and proceeded to struggle through the dense crowd of spectators surrounding the track to the cheaper part of the ground, where I was told there were several book– makers. This information proved to be correct, but when the men were on their marks for the heat, and I asked a gentleman who was announcing in an undertone that he would "lay even money the field," "What price So-and-so? " and was told six to four, and handed him my thirty shillings, saying, "Very well, the odds to this," he gave the money back to me, remark– ing, "That's too much. I'll lay you twelve bob to eight." No doubt in an event such as a mile race containing many starters there might have been more