Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-13
CURIOUS SPORTING CONTESTS.
A Man Against a Horse in a Hur
die Race.
From London Tit-Bits.

| From London Tit Bits
! A match which took place at Princes
a few weeks ago between A. X. Hamilton
and Capt. r. X. Price was no mean test
of skill and endurance. The condi-
lions were that a set OF tennis, a game
| of racquets and a game OF squash rae
! quets should be played consecutively, go
| ing from one court to the other. Capt.
| Price who gave his opponent points, just
| winning by three points.
| This, however, is but one OF many
curious sporting contests which have TAX
en- place of late years. Two years ago
q London athlete starting from just above
| Hammersmith bridge rode a mile. then
swan a mile. and landing al Putney ran
a mile on the promenade. Following this
he did mile walk and concluded with
mile cycle ride-all within an hour.
This feat reminds one of that accom-
plished by another London athlete
! few wears ago. While staying at Hamp-
| ton Wick, near Kingston on Thames, he
walked a quarter of mile. rode horse
| for a quarter Of mile. swan a quarter
of a mile, ran a quarter OF mile. rode a
| bicycle for a quarter of a mile and fin-
ished up by rowing a boat for quarter
of a mile-all in the space of lS minutes
80 2-5 seconds.
Our grandfathers were rather fond of in
| dulsinR In these novel tests OF endurance.
] and when many years ago a man ran a
mile, walked a mile, wheeled barrow,
trundled a hoop. and hoped on one leg.
all the same distance. i'm two minutes
under the hour an epidemic Of curious
athletic feats sprang up among them, in
the same way that we have been bitten
lately with the craze for marathOns and
London-to- Brighton walks.
| Perha ps one of the most amazing feats
was that OF famous pedestrian Of the
forties named Cootes. who backed him.
self to leap a hundred hurdles in a six
mile race against jockey on hunter
Inn t.ty,, V,xl
his hundredth hurdle in the forty-second
minute. the time limit being set at fifty.
| Mention Of the Brighton walk recalls an
extraordinary pedestrian performance OIL
ago who walked from Oxford to Read
ing. distance of twenty-nine miles. al
midnight. in evening dress and court slip
pers, after a day OF heavy driving rain.
Various modest fivers' were laid that
they would not do the journey within
eight hours. But the undergraduates won,
with twenty Tnintes 20 spare although
they were thoroughly done up and terri
bly, rootsore when they reached Reading
This performance. however. is by nc
means so remarkable as that of Lord
Kennedy. who years ago walked on foot
from Inverness 10 Black Hall. in Kin
cardineshire. and by striking straight
across the Grampians arrived four hours
before Sir Andrew Leith Hay, who took
the coach road and who had laid a
wager of f2,JO0 that lie would he first
The journey occupied thirty-three hours
No one is more fond of novel sport
ing matches than the London coster.
monger. Some years ago one backed
himself to walk from Covent Garden 70
Hampstead Heath station and back on
stills against an opponent carrying q
sack of potatoes. And he won.
Some time before this Chelsea fish
hawker carrying half a hundredweight oi
fish on his head ran seven miles along
the Brentford road from Hyde Park Cor
ner in forty-five minutes. and an orange
porter won a bet OF ten guineas by carry
ing a hundredweight OF oranges twenty
| times between BotOlph Lane and Spitai-
fields Market In one hour and twenty
five minutes less than the ten hours
| specified IN the wager.