SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



title of the Eastbourne Athletic Club, hold a 

 meeting annually in August. The Crawley 

 Athletic Club dating from 1897, the Hay ward's 

 Heath Athletic Club dating from 1888, the 

 Worthing, Hastings, Littlehampton, Bexhill, and 

 Cuckfield Athletic Clubs also hold annual 

 meetings. 



All the above clubs include events in their 

 programmes which are open to all amateurs and 

 attract numerous runners from various parts of 

 the country. 



Among cross-country clubs the Brighton and 

 County Harriers is the oldest. This club was 

 formed from the Brighton Athletic Club, which 

 was founded in 1877, and it assumed its present 

 title in 1894, and holds a prominent position 

 among cross-country clubs in the south of 

 England. 



The Eastbourne Athletic Club and the Craw- 

 ley Athletic Club are also cross-country clubs, 

 and the same applies to the Horsham Blue Star 

 Athletic Club, which deserves mention in any 

 notes on athletics in Sussex if only for the fact 

 that this club was instrumental in bringing to 

 the fore one of its members, the celebrated run- 

 ner Alfred Shrubb, who, after a remarkably suc- 

 cessful career as an amateur, became a professional 

 runner in 1906. As an amateur he won several 

 of the championships held by the Amateur Ath- 



letic Association from 1901 to 1904, and beat 

 all records for distances varying from 2,000 yards 

 to 1 1 miles, as well as winning the National and 

 Southern Counties Cross-Country Champion- 

 ships for several years. Shrubb also won several 

 races and championships in Australia and New 

 Zealand. 



Brighton has seen the finish of many interest- 

 ing walking races, the walk from Westminster 

 Bridge, London, to Brighton Aquarium, about 

 52 miles, having been a popular test of endurance 

 amongst athletes for many years past. 



In the olden days many a wager has been 

 lost and won over this route, and during 

 later years it has been the custom for athletic 

 clubs to manage walking races from London 

 to Brighton. 



In 1903 the London Stock Exchange held a 

 race over this distance, open to its members, and 

 which attracted widespread attention, the winner 

 E. F. Broad, and those behind him having to 

 literally force their way through the crowd on 

 their arrival at Brighton. The winner's time in 

 this race was 9 hours 30 minutes I second. A 

 second race promoted by the Stock Exchange 

 was held in 1905. 



At present the record from London to Brighton, 

 made by J. Butler on 22 September, 1906, is 

 8 hours 23 minutes 27 seconds. 



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