Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

ATHLETICS IN THE MIDLANDS BY A. E. MACHIN Vice-President ORGANISED Athletic Sports Meetings in the Midlands had a con– siderable popularity many years prior to the formation of governing Associations. Probably the oldest of the meetings-which it is pleasing to record still continues-is that held at Wenlock, in Shropshire, under the title of Wenlock Olympian Games. It began, as nearly as I can dis– cover, in 1 85o, and among the sports of the pre-A.A.A. period were those promoted by the Northampton A.C. in 1867; Loughborough, 1868 ; Birmingham A.C., 1869; Husbands Bosworth, 1873 ; Hinckley, 1873; Wigston (Leicestershire), 1874; Moseley H., 1874; Banbury, Oadby (Leicestershire), Walsall and Pershore, all in 1875, and many others of wide repute. Sports at the famous Shrewsbury School were certainly held as early as 1870, and as a matter of historical fact the Crick Run of Rugby School must be mentioned. It was established in 1837, and with here and there a hiatus has continued to the present time. The situation, therefore, was favourable for the formation ofa governing Association for these Sports in the years immediately preceding 1880, when athletics, having become popular, attracted a certain class of com– petitor whose amateurism was not, but whose opportunism was, very definitely marked. Well-known professional pedestrians were regularly masquerading under assumed names; many abuses were rampant; and though these things were not peculiar to the Midlands, those who realised that control was necessary were keen for it to be established, and it is interesting to observe that a suggestion was made in the autumn of 1879 that an Association of Clubs should be formed chiefly for the purpose of prosecuting professionals, "who mainly by false entries endeavoured to obtain prizes intended for amateurs only," and further, to "form a jury to whom the vexed question of what really constitutes an amateur might be referred." That is a question upon which a variety of opinions have been formed, but which has not, even to this day, been satisfactorily settled. Clearly the difficulties of to-day were not altogether unknown more than fifty years ago, and those who were anxious that the popularity of athletic meetings should not wane merely for want of some kind of beneficent government, persistently advocated that by some means or other the leading clubs promoting meetings should be roused to a sense of 67 E 2