FIRST IN EACH HEAT TO SWIM IN SEMI-FINAL Heat In this race the scratch man was No. ro, C. J. Lenton, of Liverpool, then Imo yards amateur champion of England, and the limit man of the whole handicap was j. A. Douglas, No. I. The start which Douglas received from Lenton was eighteen seconds, and therefore it correspondingly follows that the starts received from Lenton by the other men were the differences in seconds between the numbers placed against their name and eighteen seconds.
AA By means of this system it is claimed that the times of the men are better obtainable, and the chances of bad handicapping less. In starting such a race the word go' is only used for the actual limit man or men. The starter calls out the seconds on his watch, one, two, three, and so on, and as each man's start is reached he at once plunges, hence the term 'flying handicap.' In order to stop men plunging before their time, a check starter is now appointed. To arrive at the actual handicap time—that is to say, the time the scratch man would have to accomplish in order to win the heat—the number of seconds the limit man receives from the scratch man has to be deducted from each heat. Thus, in the case quoted, if Craw
shaw won the first heat in one minute, his actual time would be forty-four seconds, and the handicap time forty-two seconds. If Lenton also won his heat in one minute, the handicap time and scratch man's net time would be the same as the handicap time in the first heat, and a capital race might be expected between the two heat winners when they met. Since the first edition of this volume was published this style of starting has been adopted by the majority of the leading clubs in the South.
The South of England general style of starting was entirely different, as the starts were shown on the programme in the ordinary method, and the starter had to frame a back handicap after he received the programme—an entirely useless piece of work. For the sake of comparison we give a copy of a handi cap decided at Portsmouth.