V
A NOTE ON PEDESTRIANISM
The following notes may prove interesting, as showing how attempts are made to corrupt one of the best and healthiest of all sports.
Mr. Charles Souch says:—“I am now groundsman for the Cheetham Cricket Ground, Cheetham, Manchester, and I reside near the ground. I was for several years groundsman for the Manchester Athletic Club, Fallowfield.
“I have taken a prominent part in sports and athletic meetings all over the country for the past twenty-three years, and am still running. I have fifty-five medals, watches, clocks, cups, etc., etc., which I have won to any number.
“In 1892 I won the Northern Cross-country 10-mile Championship. I ran second to Parry in 1888 in the National Challengeship. I could fill pages of races I have taken part in and athletic meetings I have attended, but you want my experience of the honesty or otherwise of persons competing and taking part in these sports. Well, my opinion is, and I may say it is perfectly plain to be seen by any one who likes to look, that wherever there are betting men and bookmakers at athletic meetings then the running is dishonest. It is true that I have attended amateur athletic sports in a small way where absolutely no betting was done; then every person competing tried his very best, but this is the exception.
“On one occasion, at a small meeting near Coventry, I was on the scratch at a half-mile hurdle race. I was giving 100 yards limit. Just prior to the race starting, a man—one of the competitors—came to me and asked me to stand down,—meaning for me not to win,—and said he would make it all right for me. I refused, and meant to try and win, as I may say I always did. This was done in order to allow a certain man to win, and the man who asked was in league with a bookmaker. During the race, and when at the second hurdle, the man I have just referred to was in front of me. Whilst jumping the hurdle he purposely tumbled in front of me and fetched me to the ground. He detained me a little, and the result was his man got first and I was second. This was a flagrant case, and I complained to the officials, but nothing came of it.
“In 1889, on Whit-Monday, I went to Wrexham and took part in several events at a meeting there, and in the three miles scratch race, when I had run about the half distance, a bookmaker came on to the course and caught hold of me; I wrestled with him and got away; I ultimately won the race in spite of this obstruction. Nothing was done to this man, although he was known.
“I have known in my time any number of men who called themselves amateurs and who regularly attended athletic meetings, and after having won their ‘heats’ absolutely made no attempt to win the finals. Some of these men I have known to be kept by bookmakers and never did any work, but attended these meetings and worked in collusion with the bookmakers.
“I have often been stopped in the middle of a race by other runners stepping in front of me, causing me to go round them.