The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

PUTTING THESTONE. 33 times disputes arise asto whether the competitor'shand actually rested on the stance or ground, or not. After the stone leaves his hand he may, in bringing back his hand, lightly touch (scuff) the ground orstance without resting an instant on either. All the judge has to do is to watch whether the hand actually re­ mains stationary on one spot for any time, however short;if so the put ought to be disallowed. A plea sometimes put forward by a competitor who rests his hand on stance or ground, or even steps over the stance, is that the stone had alighted before he did so. This plea should never be listened to. A competitor who has leaned so far over the stance has taken anunfair advan­ tage of opponents who did not lean sofar as to avoid a foul, and his put is properly disqualified. Round or oval-shaped stones or round balls are mostly used for putting, the standard weights being 22 and 16 lbs. When we come to the best performances we come tothe most difficult and most disputed part of the subject,from the simplefact that there has never been apublic competition where all the follow­ ing conditions were strictly fulfilled :—That the ground was level, the stones orballs the exact weight, the throws measured from toe to first break, the hop orun limited to 7 feet 6 inches, each athlete confined to three throws, the whole superintended and guaranteed by competent disinterested judges. Nothing ismore unsatisfactory than to compare different records on different ground even with the sameweights ofstones orballs. It iseven unfair sometimes to compare the throws made on the same ground with the same stoneor ball in different years oron dif­ ferent days in the same year. A throw made on a fair, warm day on dry ground, throwing with the wind, may be from one to two feet better than the same athletecould make onthe same ground with same stone on a rainy cold day, on wet ground throwing against the wind. Supposing even that pieces ofground accurately levelled by an engineer were set apart at Inverness, Luss, and Aboyne ; that at e ch place wereround balls weighing exactly 22 and 16lbs.; that competent judges sawevery throw