Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

THE FORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION It was the opinion of those at Oxford University who founded the A.A.A. that we should have one Championship Meeting, and that it should be open to everybody who was a genuine amateur. (Applause.) That idea went through, and when we held our first Championship Meeting, I am pleased to say it was very successful. We did not then have any foreigners competing. It was not until the second year's Champion– ship Meeting that the Americans came over to compete, and we did succeed in attracting to the Championships the best athletes, and we had a better field generally than at our first Championship Meeting. It rained continuously, and those who will take the trouble to look up the absurd time (52fsecs.) in which the present speaker won the Quarter Mile Championship in r 880, may be surprised to know that the upper part of the ground was so bad that we had to run through sheets of water. Naturally, those conditions made the times slower than those Mr. Rinkel can now show us. I was not quite so slow as my time on that occasion would represent to those who do not know the conditions which then prevailed. Now I pass away from these reminiscences to the question of the A.A.A. I assure you we had not gained the unanimous support of the whole country. I had left Oxford, but I had managed to get Oxford behind me again. The support given by Cambridge to the A.A.A. at that time was very lukewarm; the support of the London A.C. was less than lukewarm. Two gentlemen-Messrs. James and William Waddell -had run rival Championships to our Championship Meeting which now exists and I had no assistance from them. I daresay that some of you have noticed that whilst I have been in the chair I have always done my best to see that the North and the Mid– lands get a fair hearing at our meetings. (Applause.) When I speak of the Association I do not want to magnify what I may have done. I was working very hard one way and another, with very little support. But I had the solid support of the North and the Midlands, and they helped to carry through the whole of my ideas. I have never forgotten that. I want to say a little more. Many of the younger men come to these meetings with the idea that the A.A.A. is a Parliament, and that they attend to legislate. If they really think so, I wholly disagree with them. Our business in the Association is to promote sport, to see that everybody has fair play, a fair field and no favour. (Hear, hear.) The Association has, I think, a great many regulations which are unnecessary, because I have always found that when somebody does something, or a club does not do what is quite the thing, and of which anybody disapproves, many people want to pass a resolution against somebody being allowed to com– pete. They trust the clubs ; they do not trust athletes. I do. All should have the interest of the sport at heart, and the best test for Athletics is a wholesome public opinion and not punitive legislation. Sir Montague, referring to the successful efforts of the Hon. Secretary, 27