SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



held by the Newark Football Club on Whit- 

 Monday, when some well-known athletes turn 

 out ; while the Retford sports meeting, which 

 usually takes place on the same day, is fortunate 

 in possessing a distinguished list of patrons, in- 

 cluding the Duke of Portland, the Duke of New- 

 castle, Viscount Galway, Sir F. Milner, Mr. 

 F. J. Foljambe, and Sir John Robinson. Other 

 meetings in the county are, or have been, held at 

 Worksop ; Sutton-in-Ashfield, where they are 

 organized by the Friendly Societies Council ; 

 Hucknall Torkard, promoted by the Excelsior 

 Temperance Prize Band ; Kirkby-in-Ashfield, in 

 connexion with the Temperance Prize Band ; 

 Stanton Hill, Southwell, Langwith, and Glap- 

 well. Smaller events also take place in connexion 

 with the village fetes and flower shows. Old 

 sports meetings which have fallen through in- 

 clude those promoted by the Nottingham Manu- 

 facturing Company's Football Club and the 

 Nottingham Castle Bicycle Club. The former 

 originated so far back as 1869, when a notable 

 feature of the gathering was the division of the 

 principal prizes between two competitors, J. B. 

 Ward and J. White. 



Although the number participating in amateur 

 athletics may be larger and the general level of 

 excellence higher than in days gone by, Notting- 

 ham does not now figure so prominently in the 

 athletic world as it did when it produced so un- 

 exampled a succession of national and northern 

 counties champions as the late Charles Spencer, 

 Sam Widdowson, Sam Bestow, Frank Cleaver, 

 Charles Gowthorpe, and Charles Daft. In hurdle- 

 racing, which calls for special qualities of speed, 

 judgement, and skill, Nottingham stood pre-emi- 

 nent for half a century. From 1870 to 1895 

 the six men mentioned above practically carried 

 everything before them, not only in the Notting- 

 ham district, but at all the big meetings, such as 

 Manchester, Sheffield, Huddersfield, and Stoke- 

 on-Trent, some of which extended over two days. 



The late Charles Spencer (who died in June 

 1907) was unquestionably the finest 120 yds. 

 hurdle racer in the country in his day. When the 

 present Sheffield Football Club organized races for 

 the northern counties they offered challenge cups 

 which were regarded by athletes as champion- 

 ships, although not officially designated as such. 

 The challenge cup for the I2O yds. hurdle race 

 was won three years in succession in the early 

 'seventies by Spencer, who thus made it his per- 

 manent property. That was his finest achieve- 

 ment, but he won well over a hundred prizes in 

 hurdle and flat races up to a quarter of a mile, 

 and was a frequent and popular winner on the 

 Nottingham track. 



Another member of the group, Sam Widdow- 

 son, succeeded in winning as many as 200 prizes, 

 1 80 of them being won at 200 meetings. Be- 

 sides being an international footballer, he was a 

 good all-round athlete. His versatility may be 



gauged by the following performances for which 

 he was responsible : Throwing the cricket ball, 

 109 yds. (on a still day) ; high jump, 5 ft. 4 in. (off 

 the grass) ; 100 yds. flat race, i of sees. ; one mile 

 flat race, 4 mins. 47 sees. ; and 440 yds., 5 if sees, 

 (on grass). To appreciate properly these achieve- 

 ments it must be remembered that vast improve- 

 ments in conditions have been brought about 

 since his day. Thus Widdowson's time for 

 the quarter-mile was only 2 yds. outside the best 

 amateur time then on record that of J. C. Clegg. 

 On one occasion he left Madrid on Wednesday 

 afternoon and travelling the whole time arrived 

 in Nottingham at one o'clock on Saturday. In 

 the afternoon he ran at the Forest sports, and 

 although he had not been on a running track 

 since the previous year, won one first and one 

 second prize. 



Two other ex-amateur champion hurdlers are 

 C. W. Gowthorpe and C. F. Daft, both of 

 whom achieved many excellent performances on 

 the path in Nottingham and elsewhere. The 

 former won the A. A. A. hurdle championship in 

 1884 in i6| sees., and still takes an active part 

 in the management of the Nottingham Forest 

 sports. Daft was probably the most proficient 

 hurdle-jumper in the world in his time. The 

 great secret of his success was the complete 

 mastery he attained of what is known as ' the 

 three-stride trick,' that is, taking three strides 

 only between each hurdle. In 1885, 1886, and 

 again in 1890 he won the amateur champion- 

 ship, and held the British record, 16 sees., made 

 at Stamford Bridge, 3 July 1886, until it was 

 wrested from him in 1895 by G. B. Shaw, who 

 reduced the time for the 1 20 yds. hurdle race to 

 15^ sees., a record which has since been lowered 

 to 15^ sees, by A. C. Kraenzlein. 



Another Nottingham athlete who deserves 

 mention is E. H. Greenhalgh of Mansfield, who, 

 like the great hurdlers already mentioned, be- 

 longed to the Forest Club, of which he was for 

 eighteen years captain and secretary. Three 

 years in succession he won the 120 yds. flat race 

 (open to amateurs) at Trent Bridge, and held the 

 amateur championship of the county for some 

 time. He won something like a hundred prizes 

 on the running path, and at an athletic meeting 

 at Mansfield in 1873 took the following five 

 events, starting at scratch on each occasion : 

 100 yds. (club), 120 yds. (open), 220 yds., 

 quarter-mile, and 6oc yds. steeplechase. 



After a long interval there has been a great 

 revival of cross-country running in Nottingham- 

 shire in recent years. Unorganized cross-country 

 runs there were in the county at irregular in- 

 tervals from the early days of the pastime in this 

 country, and some eighteen years ago a club 

 existed in Nottingham, but it was not affiliated 

 and did not survive very long. Four years ago, 

 however, mainly through the efforts of A. H. 

 Varney, the present honorary secretary, the 



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