ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

£Bi "Meeotoi."!

WHO INVENTED THE CROUCH? America Claims tho Honour. Readers will remember tho discussion in. these oolumns somo time ago on the merits and demerits of tho crouch or allfours method of starting. A -different aspeot of the question has now cropped up, uamoly, the origin of the method. Our American friends, with their usual blandne9S, have times out of number olaimed the honour of inventing it, but tho following from. tho "Referee'' goes a long way towards, relegating their claims to the land of fiction and fairy tales. Interesting Note on the Subject. Says "Snooker," who is an authority on old-timo sportsSome two years since, during the course of a talk with Archie Parrell, tho onetime 50yds. flier of New South AVales, tho question of tho origin of the "crouchstart" came up, and Archie was emphatic that tho runner to first 'introduce it to Sydney was tho Western Districts aboriginal, Bobby Mac Donald, who was so badly treated in the "Kelly Handicap" at Botany, won by Jackie Westwood. I wrote a par to that effect at the time, and several correspondents' wrote to "Tho Keforeo" claiming tho honour for Lou Hopo and Horry Bushell, a .pair of sprinters who did not lace spiked shoe until Mac Donald had finished most of his sprinting. Tho claim made in America as to tho originator of tho "crouch start" is absurd in the extreme. Myers, Skinner, M'Coomb and other' Americans who rame here some time after the "crouch" had been in vogue, knew nothing of it, and all adopted the "upright stand," of which Frank Skurry Hewitt was such - an ardent disciple and perfect example.^. It was not until after the days of the "Novice Handicaps" at Carrington that the Australian idea drifted to America.

And lieTe is the 6tory of how it got there:—When the Carrington Grounds were at their top a young California!}, named "Len" Something (I forgot his name for the moment), came over with Captain Morse in the Mariposa, for the purpose of annexing some of the loose gold which was so easy to get before the bank crash in 1893. This bespectacled young, man trainod at Carrington, with the . hundreds of others who patronised the -Bourke Street tracks, and therelearned the "crouch start" and, inter alia, the fact that the world's fastest runners were then located in Australia. .

Having little hope of winning one of the big handicaps, he "worked up a mark/' and succecded in annexing a novice, handicap and a fair wad of notes. He then returned to San. Francisco, and was. well-known to visiting Australians as assistant manager of the California Hotel. I met him there a few years lator, and ho told me the whole .story: How ho learned the "crouch" at Carrington, taught it to tho students at Stanford and Berkeley Universities, who in turn, introduced it East in the University games. From Denver and' Chicago it reached Yale, Harvard, and Princeton Universities, then drifted to. England, to be finally adopted by the whole sprinting world.

It is certainly an Australian idea, and, if I mistake not; was first exploited at Dubbo or Stuart Town (N.S.W.) in the early eighties by Bobby Mac Donald in a match against Alf. Bush,, the halfcaste, who afterwards made a name for himself by a mighty broad jump over a brook at Kelly's grounds, Botany—some 28ft. odd wide—which my colleague "Chokebore" afterwards eclipsed. Eon Hope, Bushell, Cunnamulla, Harry Miller certainly brought , the . crouch" to great perfection; 'but its only true, blown-in-the bottle author was' Bobby Mac Donald.

America Perfeoted It. Veteran F. S. Hewitt makes'the aam« claims for Mao Donald. Come. to think of it, "Mercury"', remembers -reading in: more than one. English book on athletics that the "crouch" was first invented in Australia.

This much, however, must.be conoeded the- Americans; They improved on the early Australian style, bringing it to the point of perfection. But here in Australasia we.have produced somo wonderfully fast starters—especially among the professionals, and their position on the mark is somewhat different from the American style. The- American -is more hunched up,'that is, his front foot is closer to his hands than tho Australians. George Smith, one of the fastest starters seen in these,ports, had a style somewhat similar to the Australians. Ho had a fairly large spread, and further differed from the American style, in that his legs were not nearly so much bent. Some Long-Range Business. 'Australian amateurs have not in general been anything out of the way as trackdistance runners—they have not, for instance, produced anyone in the same class as Simpson, Hill, and Dickson, of outs, at three miles, but as cross-country runners they have produced some men. not only far ahead of any talent we have developed here, but also capable of holding their own' with tho first llighters in England. . . Twice within the last three years the first man home in the OxfordCambridge cross-country contest has been an Australian, W. A. Clemes '(a Tasihanian Khodes Scholar) leading the field homo in 1910, and this year 0. M. Sproule (of' Moibounie) occupied a similar position. Last year Sproule finished third. Sproule's calibre is further shown by his fine performance for Oxford against the Surrey Athletic Club, on November 9, when he finished second to J. Hughes, of tho latter club, beating among others F. C. Neaves, the English. Southern Counties' champion. The displays of Clemes and Sproule are an eloquent tribute to tho standard of cross-country running in Australia, a standard that has been attained by the excellent manner in which harrier Tunning ii fostered there, particularly,in Victoria.

Rhodes Scholars and Athletics. Two of this year's Australian Rhodes Scholars havo excellent records on the track. E. A. Southee, tho New South Wales man, is present Australasian broad jump champion, and with his performance of over 23 feet in the broad jump, and some 46 feet in the hop-step-and-jump, more things are unlikely than that he may develop into an Olympic champion. P. E. Kerr, the Victorian, is a ■fine all-round athlete, cricketer, footballer, and runner. On tho track he has won the Melbourne University mile championship four times, the.inter-university mile championship onco, tho five miles championship of Victoria- once (in record time), and in addition has secured second place m the ten miles championship of Victoria. In comparison with the Australians, our Rhodes Soholars have cut a poor figure as athletes, only one—Colin Guray—gaining anv sort of fame at Home. He gained his football blue at Oxford, and luffcap for Scotland. - Tho others earned their fame in other and more important directions, but even in those directions their performances have not in any way eclipsed those of the more athletic Austhere is a possibility of Oxford and Cambridge sending a track team to America for a contest against Harvard and Yale. On three occasions the Americans have visited England, but if memory serves me right, the English universities have only once bofore visited the land of tho Stars and Stripes. If the trip comes oft it is sure to arouse great interest, for amongst others the English team would probably include A. N. S. Jackson, tho hero of tho last Olympia 1500 metres race, and Q. R. L. Anderson, who but for .falling, might have captured the 110 metres hurdles. American hurdlers havo hitherto been in a class of their own, and the advent of an Englishman whom American oxports frankly recognise as being in the same class as even Smithson and Ivranrfein, would draw a record crowd in the States. The only flv in the ointment is that even if the English universities prove victorious, tney. will not be able to claim that they have defeated the cream of American university athletes, which at present is mostly located at Cornell and Pennsylvania; and as English conservatism, to put it mildly, would probably give short shrift to any proposition to open up relations with American universities other than Harvard and Tale, and porhaps Princeton, the fly will probably occupy the greater part of the pot. Comment on the various Boxing Day meetings is unavoidably hold ovei; till nest week* ,