THE ALL ENGLAND PEDESTRIANS.

Grey River Argus, Issue 625, 20 January 1870, Page 4

THE ALL ENGLAND PEDESTRIANS.

[AQE, JAN, 10,] The champion pedestrians of England, Hewitt, Bird and Topley, entered the lists with the leading pedestrians of Victoria, save its champion, last Saturday afternoon on the Melbourne Cricket Ground ; and the competition drew out multitudes of spectators, as m,ight have been expected. The Englishmen were nowhere in any of the races. Either they were not good enough for the Victorian pedestrians at the handicaps, or they were not in trim. On reviewing the handicaps aud comparing them with the performances of the champions, the adjustment of distances must be regarded as fairly calculated for bringing the men upon a level, eveiy doubt haying been given in favor of the viaitors. We deaire to believe that they have not been allowed time to get into their, training and that Ledger, with all hia experience ol these particular men, laid himself out to effect too much in the. few weeks they have been on shore. The first to. appear in the field waa S Hewitt, who started at scratch in one of the four heats for a race of 17/0 yards, i The excitement was very high over this event, and when Hewitt went off in the wake of the other competitors it seemed as if hia wonderful springs, would speedily bring him among them. But, at the finish, it waa evident that some of the field of second raters who went with him might have started at scratch, and still run him within a head, one way or other. Of course he. was out of the final heat. After this very disappointing commencement, the advent of Bird and Topley was looked forward to aa likely to afford batter aport. However, in Bird'a first spin, which waa at the half-mile distance, he suffered a defeat by Higgins ; and fared still worse in the mile race, where he pulled up apparently lame, having come out of the pavilion before the start lugnbrioualy rubbing his ankle. Topley also was easily beaten by Lyall and Woodhouae in the two-mile walking match, and broke down half-way at his fancy distance of four miles. Woodhonse and Lyall, those inseparable antagonists on the walking-field, were as usual with him in this exhausting contest, having tackled the four-mile distance for the first time in public. Their walking waa the event of the day. After a tough battle over the two-mile stretch, in which Lyall, with an advantage from the handicappers, proved the winner, they faced the four miles within a little more than two hours. The style in whioh they took it throughout, almost shoulder to shoulder for a great part of the distance, showed astonishing endurance, and the interest excited by the race was intense, cries of encouragement from their admirers accpnipaiiying them in the last few rounds. Woodhouse came in barely first, and hearty cheers were raised for both the. game lads at the finish. The first racu, which was set down for a quarter past two o'clock, was over a distance of 170 yards; and was : divided into four heats, the winner of each heat again meeting to contest who had best right to the prize at a later period of the day. In the first heat, T, Evans, T, Smith, J. P, Crotty, and F. W. Harris appeared at the post in their respective distinguishingcolor ; Messrs M. Higeina, H. Jones, and j P. Mannix having withdrawn from the engagement. Evans waa handicapped to receive 10 yards start, Smith 12 yards, ! Crotty 12 yards, and Harris 13 yards. Smith forced the running, and was only defeated on the post by" Evans by the j moat trivial advantage, the time bein«j - l7£ 1 sec. In the second heat H. Cummins ref ceived 6 yards start, H, Wallace 13 yards, S. Anuear 9 yards, and W. C. Asliton 13 yards, the absentees being J . Evans and H. Conway, at 12 yarda, and J. Stivey, at 15 yards. This was awarded to Cummins, who wreated the atake from Wallace, after a grand struggle for victory, in 17£ sec. The third heat included the name ofiF. Hewitt, one of the English pedeatriana, and as might be expected, he was the ob- | served of all observers. His frame is all that could be desired in an athlete, and when in condition no doubt he will be a muscular man and a dangerous opponent, but it was directly apparent that his condition waa most faulty, and that iv a welltrained field of men he would be bound to succumb, which turned out to be the case, for he was only able to gain the third pla^e. Hewitt started at scratch, T. S. Hoiking got 9 yards, C. O. Barrasa 10 yards, and A. Drake 12 yards. The heat was won by Drake in 17 seconds, Hocking being a close second, with Hewitt third, about eight yards from the winner, beating Barrasa on the post. The fourth heat was won by G. C. Can-, receiving 9 yards ; W, Libbs, 13 yards, being second ; H. Rankin and D. Grant also starting at the 12 yards peg. This heat occupied 17k seconds, and was won easily. Later in the day the four winnera again met, Drake, OumminSj and Oarr running a dead heat, who then divided the stake. The two-mile walking match was tb.3 next event, anct G. Topley, the Englia 1 celebrity, made his first bow to an Austra'iau audience. He is a short, thickset man possessing great power; his legs are, however, long, and he has a great stride, but at present he ia positively fat and quite unprepared to compete with even sujli tolerably good and comparatively mtrained walkers as Woodhouse and Lya 1. Topley was at scratch, Woodhouse received .70 yards, Lyall 90 yards, E. Mon'c 200 yards, and' D. C.' Arclier 260 yard -i. The contest was entirely be-' tween Lyill and Wooohouse, the former winning a game race, Topley pulling up towards the end, when he discovered that further perseverance was useless, Topley's first round took 1 mm. 29£ sec, three times Tound exactly 5 mm,, and the match occupie 1 15 mm. 5 stc, In the ha'f-mile race, A- E. Bird, the renowned distance runner— and another of the English importations—was introduced to the eager crowd ; and although he created a most favorable impression, his conditiou ivna considered too faulty to cope with men so lit as Higgins and Others in the race, ami he too Wtia di;-. wed to be vanquished ai*

though hia style of running was immensely admired, Bird waa at scratch, Higgina received 16 yards, G. Cronk 22 yards. The race waa won by Higgina with Cronk second, and Bird nowhere, also beating J, Poynting 40 yards, M. Hal pin 40 yards, and J, Lupton 45 yards. Time, 1 nn'n. 59J aec. The Two-miles Bicycle Race was wan by A, Ilton, J. Ward being second, and J, Chapman third. The One-mile Handicap Flat Race waa won by E, Ford, receiving 65 yards ; 0 , Poynting, 65 yards, aecond ; M. Halpin, 90 yards, third ; Bird, at aoratch, again being nowhere. M, Higgins, who waa handioapped at 40 yards, would in all probability have been the winner, but waa seised with apasms a few yards from home, and fell to the ground, aa did Ford alao immediately after passing the post. The time was 4 mm. 4.0 aec. The Four^mile Walking Match was a splendid race between Woodhouse and Lyall, The former received HO, and the latter 18Q yards from G. Topley, who had no chance throughout of beating those in front of him, W, Buck and J. Ellis also started with an advantage of 400 yards, but were aoon out of the race, which occupied 31 mm, 37 sec. The challenge made by Mr Harris, champion runner of the Australian colonies, to ra,o.e Frank Hewitt at different distances for 14100 aside, was on Thursday accepted, and a deposit of LIOO made by each party, the races to come off within two months, and arrangements have been made as follows ;— Five races to be run at the foldiatances for HOO aside, 100 yards, 150 yards, 200 yards, 300 and a quarter of a mile, to. come off on the M.G.O. ground on Saturday and Monday sth and 7th March, bath competitors to start by the report of piatol, and in the event of either of them passing hia mark before the piatol ia fired, he is to be put back one yard. Mr Hammersley will act as starter, and Mr George Watson as referee. The Athletic Sporta Committee (Messrs Harrison, Wardell, and Hammersley), will carry out the arrangements on behalf of Hewitt, and Messrs. O'Shannassy, Quirk and Collina, on behalf of Harris.