Bredin on Running & Training

THE GOVERNING BODY. 109 reformers in the A. A. A. unsuccessfully endeavoured to reduce. Now Mr. Montague Shearman writes in regard to this subject: "The other remedy is easier, and rests with the genuine amateurs themselves without requiring any assistance from public patronage. The bona :fide gentleman-amateur must give up the idea of earning valuable prizes, and must take to the system of running for medals of little value, or to earn his 'colours,' as at the Universities, without any further reward. In other sports gentlemen are willing enough to toil and practise to gain honour alone. The cricketer plays assiduously for seasons and is sufficiently rewarded by gaining a place in his county eleven, and athletics would be placed upon a sounder footing if there were more representative competitions which it would be recognised as an honour to win, or even to take part in, without any special stimulant." Presuming for a moment that the majority of amateur athletes signed and forwarded a petition to their governing body in which they stated that, for the welfare of sport, they had decided in future to com– pete at no meetings where any prizes were offered of greater value than a guinea each, and, further pre– suming that the A. A . A. then passed a law compelling clubs to so limit the value of all prizes offered for competition, what would be the probable consequences of such a decision? I think it extremely likely that most of our leading athletic clubs would continue to hold their meetings, even allowing for a decided falling off in regard to membership, and consequently to the entries they receive for the various events; and also that public patronage would not necessarily be eliminated.