“On one occasion, at a small meeting near Coventry, I was on the scratch at a half-mile hurdle race. I was giving 100 yards limit. Just prior to the race starting, a man—one of the competitors—came to me and asked me to stand down,—meaning for me not to win,—and said he would make it all right for me. I refused, and meant to try and win, as I may say I always did. This was done in order to allow a certain man to win, and the man who asked was in league with a bookmaker. During the race, and when at the second hurdle, the man I have just referred to was in front of me. Whilst jumping the hurdle he purposely tumbled in front of me and fetched me to the ground. He detained me a little, and the result was his man got first and I was second. This was a flagrant case, and I complained to the officials, but nothing came of it. “In 1889, on Whit-Monday, I went to Wrexham and took part in several events at a meeting there, and in the three miles scratch race, when I had run about the half distance, a bookmaker came on to the course and caught hold of me; I wrestled with him and got away; I ultimately won the race in spite of this obstruction. Nothing was done to this man, although he was known. “I have known in my time any number of men who called themselves amateurs and who regularly attended athletic meetings, and after having won their ‘heats’ absolutely made no attempt to win the finals. Some of these men I have known to be kept by bookmakers and never did any work, but attended these meetings and worked in collusion with the bookmakers. “I have often been stopped in the middle of a race by other runners stepping in front of me, causing me to go round them. “I could go on recounting similar experiences, but there is a sameness about them all. There is not one quarter of the so-called amateur athletes who try to win, and what I say is quite plain to be seen by any one. “Another common practice is when the runners are leaving the dressing-tent to hear whispers that so-and-so is going to try and so-and-so is not trying, and in many instances, to my own knowledge, the thing is arranged before they leave the tent.