SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



ATHLETICS 



Middlesex ranks first of all the counties of 

 England in this branch of sport, containing, as 

 it does, some of the oldest and most important 

 athletic clubs in the country ; many clubs 

 in the county indeed are able to boast of an 

 unbroken existence of nearly half a century. 



Foremost among athletic clubs in Middlesex 

 is the London Athletic Club. Founded in 1863 

 under the title of the Mincing Lane Athletic 

 Club, it took its present name in the spring 

 of 1866. It held its first athletic meeting at 

 the Beaufort House grounds at Brompton on 

 9 April 1864, and a second on 21 May of 

 the same year. It continued to meet there 

 until 1869, having in 1867 had sports at the 

 Old Deer Park, Richmond, and at Beaufort 

 House, Walham Green. After it moved its 

 head quarters to Lillie Bridge in 1869 

 meetings were held there until 1876. In 

 1877 it again moved, this time to its own 

 grounds at Stamford Bridge, Fulham. These 

 grounds of six and a half acres were closed 

 after the last meeting on 24 September 1904, 

 and a new and larger track was made, partly 

 on the same site, with a banked track for 

 cycling and seating accommodation for 10,000 

 people. The new area of seventeen acres 

 was still known as Stamford Bridge, and the 

 L.A.C. opened with a meeting on 10 May 

 1905. During the winter months the ground 

 is used by the Chelsea Football Club. 



The L.A.C. has been fortunate in securing 



the L.A.C. now totals about 400, a number 

 far exceeded in the early years of the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century, when 

 athletics were more popular than they are at 

 the present time. The club, however, has 

 done yeoman service in the past in the cause 

 of athletics. 



Another old and still prominent club hold- 

 ing its meetings at Stamford Bridge is the 

 Civil Service Athletic Club, whose members 

 are drawn from the various branches of his 

 Majesty's Civil Service. This club held its 

 first meeting in 1864 at Brompton and, like 

 the L.A.C., moved to Lillie Bridge in 1869, 

 and finally to Stamford Bridge, where it held 

 its forty-fourth meeting in June 1907. The 

 Civil Service Athletic Club includes several 

 open events in its programme which always 

 attract good entries from the best athletes of 

 the day. 



The United Hospitals Athletic Club, 

 founded in 1867, also holds its meetings at 

 Stamford Bridge. Its chief attraction is a 

 competition for a challenge shield between 

 members of the various London hospitals. 



Many notable performances have been done 

 both at Lillie Bridge and Stamford Bridge 

 from time to time, and though all the old 

 amateur records made at Lillie Bridge have 

 now been beaten, the following records, 

 accomplished at Stamford Bridge, still stand 

 to-day : 



the support of many prominent men in the w P p h ; mps> I20y ds. in 



management of its affairs, such names as iisec on 2? Mar 1882 



those of Lord Alverstone and the Earl of C. A. Bradley, 120 yds. in 



Jersey (both famous athletes of a bygone day) i if sec 28 Apr. 1894 



appearing, among others as famous, on its list A. R. Downer, 120 yds. in 



of officers. Its present president is Mr. I if sec u May 1895 



Montague Shearman, K.C., a well-known J- W - Morton, 120 yds. in 



runner at Oxford University, who afterwards r , II ^ sec ' - j " H Se P f - 1 9 



won the amateur championship both at 100 C ' < Wood ' l $7 di - ln 



and 440 yards. The L.A.C. now holds four p 'tf ^P ' ' ' ' ' . 2I J ul X lS8 7 



,. ' . . . E. H. Felling, 200 yds. in 



afternoon and two evening meetings a year , 9 4_ sec \ _ 28 Sept. 1889 



at which races open to all amateurs, approved A> R Downer, 200 yds. in 



by the committee, are included as well as races 19* sec ,,14 May 1895 



for challenge cups and other events open to C. H. Jupp, aooyds. in 19* sec. 4 June 1904 



members. In addition the club holds an C. G. Wood, 220 yds. in 



extra meeting in the spring, chiefly confined 2ifsec ,,25 June 1887 



to contests at various distances for the Public E. H. Felling, 250 yds. in 



Schools Championships. The club also com- H^c , 22 Sept. 1888 



petes annually against Oxford and Cambridge C ** Wood ' * ^ in 



Universities, on the lines of the inter- *$?*+ j ' ' V ' " * 7 ] ^ Y lS8/ 



TT . , , . rl. C. L. i indall, 440 yds. in 



Umvers,ty sports, and these meetings act as an 8isec . . '. f June l88 



interesting and useful trial for the teams (At A.A.A. Championship Meeting.) 



about to compete in the more important E. C. Bredin, 440 yds. in 



event at Queen's Club. The membership of 48Jsec on 22 June 1895 



301 



