ABSTRACT
The direct precursor of the modern triple jump, ‘hop, skip and jump’ was popular in Ireland, Scotland and the north of England, where it was sometimes called ‘hop, stride and loop’.
See also Highland Games
Tony Collins
Having existed at an informal level since the medieval period, organised horseracing developed in Wales during the seventeenth century under the patronage of leading gentry families. Although the sport was initially confined exclusively to the social elite, with meetings tending toward family events rather than public occasions, by the eighteenth century it had started to acquire a wider appeal. From the 1720s onwards one of the centres of racing in Wales was Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, where the town’s annual races, usually spread over four days, attracted large crowds. Other recognised eighteenth-century Welsh flat races included those at Cowbridge, in the south, and Holywell, in the north. By the early nineteenth century, courses were so numerous nationwide that competitors were not required to travel far to race. In 1830, the Racing Calendar listed 125 Welsh courses at which flat racing took place. Up until the 1870s, local race meetings relied heavily on the financial support of the landed classes, who regarded their donations as a means of demonstrating their social status.
