Bredin on Running & Training

32 RUNNING AND TRAINING. Shortly after this race had taken place, Le Maitre entered and ran in a half-mile handicap at Stamford Bridge, and was surprised to find that the handicapper had placed him on the five yards start from E. D. Robinson, who was certainly no better than I min. 59 sees. He refused to accept a start, remarking that Cross had not beaten him so very far when the latter removed Myer's old record, but he (Le Maitre) failed to run either first or second in this handicap, Robinson, if I remember rightly, occupying the second position, in about two minutes. There is little doubt that Le Maitre would have required something like 30 yards start on that occasion to have enabled him to beat I min. 55 sees., but I saw Cross easily run half a mile at Stamford Bridge during the spring of '87 in I min. 57! sees., and, taking into consideration his pace at a quarter and great staying power, it is, at any rate, easy for me to believe that on a fair day, and in the pink of condition, he would have been able to accomplish the time that stands to his credit on paper. F. Stuart Howard and E. D. Robinson, whom I remember watching with interest fight out two good scratch races at half a mile in the season of '86, one of these races being for the amateur championship at Stamford Bridge, won by the latter, can be here taken as representing the somewhat old-timers, and, in addition to W. J. Holmes, of later date, may be unmistakably regarded as half-milers proper. A runner occasionally appears whose abilities are most varied and contradictory. G. B. Shaw, for instance, ran well in a sprint, was poor at a quarter