CHAMPAGNE BENEFICIAL TO ATHLETES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 916, 26 September 1907, Page 22

CHAMPAGNE BENEFICIAL TO ATHLETES.

The Rev. F. J. Foakes-Jackson, D.D., writing on “Athleticism at the Universities” in the new “Oxford and Cambridge Review/’ calls attention to the growing belief in the beneficial qualities of champagne. “There is a reaction,” he says, “against the old methods, which were in some cases as unwholesome as they were brutal. Instead of the ‘hard steak and harder hen’ which, according to the Eton boating song, formed the force of the ‘Eight,’ men seem to be given too frequently whatever they fancy, and there is a tendency to regard champagne as a remedy for all the ills of life.” In discussing the use of champagne as an element in the scheme of training, a famous sculler assured a “Daily Mail” representative that provided the champagne be of good quality, its imbition, in reasonable quantities, so far from having a deleterious effect on the body or mind, is really a tonic, the importance of which cannot be over-estimated. “I drink a small bottle of champagne,” he said, “an hour belore I am due in the boat—this on the recommendation of one of the finest coaches in the world.” Replying to a question by a “Daily Mail” representative, a well-known wine merchant remarked that one of his regular customers is a famous football international, who firmly believes in the efficacy of champagne as a stimulant to endurance. Mr. S. H. Smith, who has emerged triumphantly from many stern battles on the courts, often orders a bottle of cham-

pagne on the eve of a big five-set final; he has found it a tonic of tonics. Dr. Pirn, the most imperturbable player whq ever won the blue riband at Wimbledon, never eschewed wine, and drinking it never seemed to make the slightest difference in his form or to affect his nerve in any way. Mr. Gore, the champion of 1901, is also a champagne-drinker, and one of the most strenuous tournament competitors going.