Correspondence—The Cross-Country Race

THE CROSS-COUNTRY RACE To the Editor of "The Peterite". Dear Sir,

The present organisation in the School of the popular sport of cross-country running leaves, in my opinion, something to be desired. The race is run, of course, as an inter-house competition, and under the present arrangement whereby only a limited number of runners compete, this involves the choosing of House teams. As far as I am able to discover, this is usually done by one of the following methods :— (i) arbitrary selection by the House Captain of his worst enemies; (ii) House "trial runs", during which various individuals may be seen surreptitiously marking time behind bushes in order to avoid selection. Once the teams have been chosen, they have to be trained (to the detriment of other sports), while the main mass of Rugger players and the "unclassified" revert to long and aimless runs, which are shirked as far as possible largely because those who have to go them can see no object in doing so.

Now, could not this state of affairs be improved, and many more boys be given some purpose in their compulsory exercise if the whole School were to take part in the race? If this were done, and perhaps the first twenty boys in each House were to count towards their House's total of points, a much more accurate indication of the comparative running strengths of Houses would be obtained than is possible with the present system. The course is not too long, even for juniors—they are frequently sent to run round it, anyway—and overcrowding at the start could be avoided by organising the runners into Seniors, Intermediates and Juniors and starting them at, say, oneminute intervals. Checking and recording at the finish would need care, but a large roll of numbered tickets would simplify this.

I know that similar systems are used with success in other schoo and I feel sure that even the most reluctant pedestrians will a that the arguments in favour of such a system are weighty. Perhaps—t who knows?—they may one day find their way into the ponde deliberations of the Games Committee.

Yours faithfully, "ZEALOT".

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