Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-21
COURSING GREAT SPORT


An effort was made last fall at the
Brightwood Driving Park to create interest
in coursing races In this vicinity. Captain
yickery had his fast racer. Princess Maude.
and there were number of local people
who entered their greyhounds. but for some
reason the sport did not make a go.
For many years coursing has been one of
the greatest sports in England. What the
Derby is to the racing man, the Oxford
and Cambridge boat race to the rowing
man, the Waterloo cup is to the courslng
man. Those who are not courslng men
have, perhaps, but dim idea OF what the
Waterloo cup is. Many know that ii is a
sport in which greyhounds and hares take
a prominent part. but others share the
blissful ignorance of the sportsman who
declined to name his fancy for the Water
loo cup until he knew who was up"
Coursing is pursued in most parts OF
England but Lancashire is the great
coursing county. There are countless mi
nor stakes, but the Waterloo cup Is the
event of the year. The pick of England
greyhounds compete and only the pick, for
none but pedigree dogs whose names are in
the studbOok may enter. and the number
of entries is limited TO siXtyfour.
All the dogs are drawn against each other
in pairs. then the winners of the first and
second pairs meet each other and so on
down the whole list The draw takes place
at Liverpool the night before the event,
usually in room al one of the leading
hotels. Cards bearing the numbers of the
siXtyfour dogs are drawn alternately
from two ancient jugs of Staffordshire pot
terry, which have assisted at the draw for
years past.
* X
The smoke room is thronged with sturdy,
| red-faced open-air men. mostly in cloth
caps and CATERS and the air Is thick with
tobacco smoke and doggy" techncalities.
An election committee room on the eve of
the declaration of a parliamentary poll is
calm and unenthusiastic compared with the
smoke room when the draw has been made
and the experts know which dog is to
meet which the following morn.
And on the following morn all Liverpool
and most of Lancashire flock to Altcar ny
road and rail. A black army of men, ten
deep. wind like a mighty serpent over the
fiat. green country till they come to the
field where the start is to be made. They
settle, like swarm of locusts, on a coign
of vantage, usually one of the long, high
| banks which abound. Before them stretches
a big, fiat, bare of life save for the judge
and the committeeman, and a screen be-
hind which man in a red coat and CATERS
is holding the first pair of dogs In leash.
Affair." off over the countryside is a vague
shouting, which gradually comes nearer rs
the heaters close in on the hares, which
nave peeh ieu up anu lelt uIliloiesteu IoF
weeks before cOursing begins. Presently
tiny black figures waving their arms APP
pear on the sky line. They resolve them
selves into men, and then little specks APP
pear running about the ground in front of
them At length one of these little specks
becomes a hare, and comes galloping along
past the fatal screen
*
The dogs are eager and strain madly at
the leash. The gives the hare fair
law, runs with the dogs till they are evenly
behind the hare and then slips them Quick
as the hare runs. she has no chance in a
straight race with the dogs, which can
cover sixteen feet at a jump. Her hope is
in lodging, and a good hare by the speed
with which she turns, will escape the dogs
for some minutes. Then she turns the frac-
ton of second too late, and there is moth
ing left of her but limp piece of fur dang