A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Harriers were 

 formed, and this' organization has progressed so 

 rapidly that it now has over a hundred mem- 

 bers. It is divided into sections, one of the most 

 flourishing being the Button section, which in- 

 cludes among its members some very keen and 

 smart performers, two of whom were in the 

 counting six in the Midland Counties Senior 

 Championship run at Derby in 1907. The 

 Nottingham section has a brilliant home record, 

 but it has not been quite so successful in inter- 

 club engagements. It is affiliated to the National 

 Cross-Country Union and the Midland Counties 

 Cross-Country Association, and prominent 

 amongst its members are P. Mann, P. W. Mann, 

 J. W. Padley, W. Clark (winners of 10 miles 

 club championships), J. Parry, Knowles, Wilson, 

 W. Jowett, H. Goodger, H. Nurse, R. H. 

 Hackett, W. A. Dove, and A. H. Varney. 

 Mr. Varney has been on the path for fifteen 

 years and has won a large number of prizes at 

 Midland race meetings, beating, amongst others, 

 the Midland half-mile champion, and G. Smith 

 of the Derby Harriers, winner of the Midland 

 one mile championship three years in succession. 

 In 1894, 1895, and 1896 he won the Lincoln 

 Harriers championship, and in 1904 was first in 

 the Beeston Harriers 10 miles championship. 

 He also carried off the 8 miles handicap and 

 secured the highest number of points in inter- 

 club races the previous season. Since the estab- 

 lishment of the Nottingham and Nottingham- 

 shire Harriers a number of smaller organizations 

 for the promotion of this, the purest, form of 

 amateur sport have sprung up in the city, includ- 

 ing the Mapperley Hare and Hounds, the Not- 

 tingham Savages, the Robin Hood Harriers, and 

 the Eulwell Harriers. It is also proposed to 

 form a junior section and a walking club in con- 

 nexion with the Nottinghamshire Harriers, and 

 an athletic meeting, in aid of charity, was held 

 in July 1908, under the joint auspices of this 

 club and the Nottingham Castle Bicycle Club. 

 An older club than the Nottinghamshire 

 Harriers is the Beeston Harriers, which was 



founded in 1900. It is strongly represented 

 at local athletic sports, and several of its members 

 figure prominently in races demanding both pace 

 and stamina. A more recently formed organiza- 

 tion is the Beeston Rylands Athletic Club, 

 which includes in its programme both indoor 

 and outdoor athletics, the outdoor items includ- 

 ing pedestrianism in addition to cricket, rowing, 

 and swimming. Other clubs in the county are 

 the Netherfield Harriers and the Mansfield St. 

 Peter's Harriers, the president of the latter being 

 the Rev. Canon Prior, himself an old athlete 

 and the winner of various trophies. 



Nottingham and Beeston being situated in the 

 midst of the cycle industry, it is not to be won- 

 dered at that men bred and born in the county 

 should take high rank in the national cycle 

 championships and perform well at the athletic 

 galas held in the immediate vicinity. In 1885 

 Robert Cripps of Nottingham, a sturdy pedaller 

 who late in life went in for cycle making, won 

 the N.C.U. 5 miles tricycle championship at 

 Birmingham in 16 mins. 53^ sees. The finest 

 and most consistent mile cyclist of all time was 

 Herbert Synyer, of the Nottingham Boulevard 

 C.C., who in 1888 upon an ordinary bicycle 

 won the mile N.C.U. championship in 2 mins. 

 32 sees., which remained the fastest mile in a 

 N.C.U. championship for many years. Synyer that 

 year won the 5 miles ordinary championship at 

 Newcastle in 15 mins. 4 sees. In 1889 he again 

 won the 5 miles honour in 18 mins. 24^ sees, 

 (there were no time limits in those days) at 

 Paddington. A Nottingham tricyclist, H. H. 

 Sansom, came to the fore in the N.C.U. cham- 

 pionship events for the three-wheeled machine 

 in 1889, for at Paddington he beat the fields in 

 the mile (time 3 mins. 12 sees.) and the 5 

 miles (time 17 mins. 15^ sees.) in capital style. 

 Next year Sansom repeated his 5 miles victory 

 on the same track. Nottingham has had in her 

 city many handicap and scratch riders of repute, 

 and F. W. Millard almost rose to championship 

 rank in a year when there were many first-class 

 sprinters awheel. 



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