Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

A.A.A. JUBILEE SOUVENIR What, then, is the significance of the international athletic match in Western civilisation ? Can it be said to contribute to national amity, to athletic efficiency or the fulfilment of resthetic need l It is the considered opinion of many of those who have promoted such matches and of many who have taken part in them that such competitions serve to remove some of the barriers between nations, to promote understanding on common ground between the peoples of such nations, to bring home the higher truth that some things are worth doing for themselves rather than for material gain, and to exhibit that grace of movement which gives a lasting pleasure to its author and is a source of joy to those who are looking on. The athletic match, as a whole, should be and can be considered as a work of art-as the adequate expression of a human need in the medium of a co-operative physical activity. 100 YEARS AGO THE following paragraph appeared in the Essex Chtw1icle a hundred years ago:- " Several hundred persons congregated on Waterloo Bridge to witness R. Cootes, the celebrated runner, undertake the following difficult task : To draw a one-horse chaise one mile, walk one mile, run backwards half a mile, row a boat one mile, trundle a hoop one mile, and run forwards one mile-the whole to be accomplished within the hour. The match was for £10, and owing to the unfavourable state of the weather, the betting was against him. At half-past two the parties appeared on the ground, and at a quarter to three the runner commenced his difficult performance from twenty-seven yards of the Middlesex Gate at Waterloo Bridge, which made it exactly a quarter of a mile to the gate on the opposite side. The pedestrian went through the whole of his task in grand style, amidst the greatest disadvantages, a small rain falling nearly the whole of the time, with a strong wind from the westward. At the conclusion of the great undertaking, a dispute arose as to whether it was accomplished within the hour; a variety of opinions was expressed, but the umpires declared the match was lost by one minute and a half." Even in thos€ days it is interesting to note that " a variety of opinions was expressed" upon an athletic feat, and although "umpires" were apparently appointed, there was no Amateur Athletic Association to adjudicate upon any disputed point, or to see that betting was "strictly prohibited." 108