CORRESPONDENCE.
[H r e do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by our correspondents}. THE CALEDONIAN SPORTS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your issue of Saturday last, I noticed a letter signed “ Enquirer,” asking your opinion as to whether jumping the tape at the conclusion of a rare disqualified the leading man from taking the prize, and stating, moreover, that such a case hud occurred at the late Sports at Waerenga-a-hika, on New Year’s Day. Your reply was that such a proceeding did not disqualify him from taking the prize. Pardon me, Sir, for correcting you. I did not intend to be drawn out of my shell, and can safely say that I am not afflicted with the cacoethes scribendi, or itch for rushing into print that occasionally betrays itself in the columns of some Colonial journals ; but I am qualified to answer a question of this nature, inasmuch as for six and twenty years prior to my arrival in Gisborne, I was engaged on the oldest sporting paper in existence— Bell's Life in London—usually accepted as the authority in such matters as the one in question. For the last ten or a dozen years of that time I had sole charge of the department of that journal of which “ Pcdestrianism ” formed a considerable item, and it was part of my duty to draw up articles, receive deposits, and pay stakes to the winner. I also had to occupy the enviable post of referee in all parts of the United Kingdom. My reason for this prelude is simply that you may understand it is not merely my ipse dixit, but that I go upon precedent, for “ history repeats itself ” even in pedestrian ism, and similar cases have occurred. The answer given by old Nunguam Dormio, and all other sporting papers, being that the man in such a case loses. Say, for instance, are drawn up for two men to run 100 yards, can he be said to fulfil t e conditions who jumps the tape ? It is only vanity, but it J >ses him the race, and if you have the opportunity of referring to Bell in this Colony you will find it answered as 1 state.
Should anyone doubt this Mr Editor, I am prepared to stake 4 to 1 that. I e four principal sporting journals in England— Bell's Life, The Field, Sporting Life, and Sportsman—will be unanimous in their reply. If either of them reply differently I am contented to lose.— Yours, Ac., Old Spout. [We are glad to hear from you “ Old Sport.” Our reply to “ Enquirer” was based upon the best information at our command. We can understand that the tape in a walking match would not be correct. Not so in a running match. Ina foot race there is no stipulation to regulate the length of the stride, or the mode in which it is to be taken.
In “ Modern Athletics” by H. F. Wilkinson of the London Athletic Club, 1880, it says, at page 30, that the judges should be able to adjudge between those who “ pass the post.” Beyond the physical impossibility of the act, there appears from the authority we have quoted, no objection to the winning competitor in a foot race performing the whole distance by means of a succession of somersaults. When Weston caused such a sensation in England, in an important mutch at that period, whore there was almost a dead heat, the judges lowered the tape, and the winning man walked over it. -Ed. S.l
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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1022, 12 January 1882, Page 2
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589CORRESPONDENCE. Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1022, 12 January 1882, Page 2
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