Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

ATHLETICS IN THE SOUTH District or Amateur Championships for an opportunity of meeting his rivals on level terms. Closer study of bygone meetings shows that " short long distance " running was much more freely encouraged than it is to-day. In the early 'nineties especially, races were held Saturday after Saturday at 3, 4, 5, or even 6 miles, and each was as likely as not to produce a breaking of record. Who hears of a 5 miles open race to-day? Gone, too, is the inter-team contest over these distances. Things are made much more comfortable for athletes, or they make them more comfortable for themselves, than of old. The straw-strewn marquee with a few shallow bowls of water has given way to the more or less cosy dressing-room with tables and "showers." The runner once stepped straight from the dressing tent to his mark. Now he appears clad in warm raiment and proceeds to disrobe on the grass-a wise innovation, this. He no longer carries corks, his nether garments are as attenuated as decency permits, and he "limbers up" by cantering up and down the ground in view of all. In the dressing-room itself a long application of the art of massage has displaced the old rub-down with flesh gloves. The latter may have been less efficacious, but it brought the athlete into the closest contact with those wise old "trainers" who, for the recompense of a few coppers, would supply this, the finishing touch. Relay racing introduced us in I 89 5 to a new and fascinating kind of contest, which steadily grew in favour, until no meeting in the South was complete without one or more of these events. Indeed, one is sometimes tempted to think relay racing is occasionally carried to the point of satiety. It may certainly be said to encourage the team spirit as against individual glorification, but, on the other hand, a well-judged victory in an ordinary scratch race is a lasting pleasure in the eye of an expert. A striking feature of modern athletics in the South, as elsewhere, is specialisation. Fifty years ago, when men pursued the sport" for the fun of the thing" (their own phrase), they tried all distances and every type of event. One could point to old-timers whose boast it is that they won prizes at every distance from 100 yards to IO miles. Nowadays, the demands of international and kindred contests are so exacting that an athlete is bound to specialise if he wishes to become super-excellent. It it a matter for the taste of the individual. If he desires national or inter– national renown he will stick more or less to one distance. If he runs " for the fun of the thing" he will fl.it from event to event as the fancy takes him, but he may never be among the champions or record-breakers. Yet through all the changes of the past half century athletes in the South have had before them two paramount ideals: respect for the real spirit of amateurism and loyalty to their fellows. The latter, especially, has gone from strength to strength, until to-day community of interest and a burning desire for the success of one's team, whether it comes from club, county or country, has largely superseded the old-time selfish 77