CRACK SHOTS I 



AILE VS Magazine initiated an interest-provoking scheme 

 when it set its readers to work to solve the difficult 

 problem of which twelve men were the most expert in each 

 branch of sport. It started with polo, in an article by Mr. 

 Buckmaster, wherein the play of each man was reviewed in the 

 true impartial spirit of criticism. The names had just then 

 almost been officially given to the world in the Hurlingham 

 " recent form " list ; and this the readers of Bailey confirmed. 

 In one article the twelve best fishermen were voted for; and 

 fly fishing, unlike polo, is a private sport; unlike shooting, it 

 is not even carried out in private parties, and really there was 

 nothing to go upon except the literary efforts of the fishermen 

 voted upon. Because a man can write and can interest fisher- 

 men, he need not necessarily be a clever angler. Francis 

 Francis was the one ; by all accounts he was very far from the 

 other. Consequently, the voting for anglers of highest form 

 was on a totally different basis from that of the less private 

 as well as the wholly public sports. Had we set the ballot-box 

 going for crack marksmen (exclusive of riflemen and pigeon 

 shots) sixty years ago, the man who must have come to the top 

 was Colonel Hawker. He would have been there by right of 

 the story he told to young shooters, for whether he was the 

 superb marksman suggested by his writings or not, there was 

 nobody to challenge it no one who had shown that he knew 

 woodcraft and watercraft half as well. Probably there has 

 never been anyone since who could hold a candle to the Colonel 

 for a complete knowledge of the latter art and science (for 

 gunnery was as much a concern of his as the habits of fowl). 



