A notice was accordingly issued in March by the presidents of the two University Clubs, inviting secretaries of all recognised athletic clubs to meet at Oxford on April 24. As soon as the notice was circulated the advertisements of the usual Lillie Bridge championship were withdrawn, and it was tacitly agreed between the disputants to settle the question of spring or summer championships at the Oxford meeting.

It is probably no breach of confidence after so long an interval to say that the 'Oxford Conference' had several narrow escapes of falling to the ground. Each different party was anxious to keep away from the meeting unless some guarantee for the preservation of its interests was given, and this was of course impossible. Even at Cambridge some opposition was got up in the University club against the holding of the meeting, and early in April the guiding spirits of the movement at Oxford were at their wits' end for an expedient to realise their cherished project of founding a general governing body for amateur athletics. Finally the well-known tastes of Englishmen were recollected, and it was decided to invite every delegate to attend a meeting in the afternoon and a dinner in the evening. How far the latter part of the suggestion availed to overcome scruples it is, of course, impossible to conjecture; but in the result the meeting came off on April 24, 1880. A set of resolutions to submit to the assembly was drafted by Messrs. Wise, Jackson, and Shearman of the O.U.A.C., and on the evening before the meeting they were further discussed in conjunction with Mr. Walter Rye, who had come down from London for the purpose.

The gathering was attended by twenty-seven delegates representing fifteen clubs, the Northern Association (sixteen clubs), and the Midland Association (nine clubs), and at that meeting was founded the Amateur Athletic Association, which, at the end of six years, consisted of 154 clubs representing about 20,000 athletes. As the foundation of the A.A.A. represents a new and important era in the history of athletic sport in this country, it may perhaps not be amiss to give a few further particulars of the men present at this first meeting at Oxford and of the resolutions there come to. The representatives present were J. G. Chambers and A. G. Payne (of the A.A.C.); E. Storey, L. Knowles, and R. H. Macaulay (of the C.U.A.C); C.Herbert and H. Tomlinson(of the C.S.A.A.); J.W. Macqueen (of the German Gymnastic Society); J. Waddell (of the L.A.C.); J. Andertonand Frank Smith (of the Midland Counties Association); R. Mullock (of the Newport, Monmouth, A.C.); C. E. Barlow, T. G. Sharpe, H. C. Faram, and T. M. Abraham (of the Northern Counties Association); J. Ingman (of the Northampton A.C.); C. F. Turner and J. E. Dixon (of the North of the Thames Cross Country Union); C. N. Jackson, W. N. Bruce, and M. Shearman (of the O.U.A.C); J. Suddaby (of the Reading A.C.); J. Gibb (of the South London Harriers); W. Rye (of the Thames Hare and Hounds); W. Waddell (representing the United Hospitals A.C.); E. R. Wood (of the Woodbridge A.C.); and B. R. Wise, who, as President of the O.U.A.C, took the chair.

At this meeting it was decided that the Championship Meeting should take place in the summer, and be held in rotation in London, the Midlands, and the North, and that it should be open to all persons who had never competed for money; that the clubs present should associate themselves into a body, to be known as the Amateur Athletic Association; and that the objects of the body should be: (1) To improve the management of athletic meetings, and to promote uniformity of rules for the guidance of local committees; (2) to deal repressively with any abuses of athletic sports; (3) to hold an annual championship meeting. It was also decided that 'all races held under the sanction of the Association be confined to amateurs, and that the following be the definition of an amateur: "Any person who has never competed for money, with or against a professional for any prize, and who has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises as a means of obtaining a livelihood." 'In order, however, to guarantee the independence of individual clubs it was understood that this rule should not interfere with the right of any club to refuse the entry of any person to its own sports whenever it thought fit.

As regards prizes it was arranged that in no handicap should a prize of greater value than 10l. 10s. be allowed, and that every prize of a greater value than 5l. should be engraved with the name and date of the meeting. The execution of these provisions was to be entrusted to a committee, consisting of certain ex-officio members, the representatives of a few leading clubs, and of elected members. A large number of names were proposed for election, but the following ten were chosen for the first year: The Earl of Jersey, and Messrs. Anderton, Barlow, Herbert, Jackson, Lockton, Macaulay, Rye, Shearman, and Waddell. Probably it was in recognition of the services of the Oxford men in setting the Association on foot that in the choice of the officers for the first year Lord Jersey was elected President, and Messrs. Wise, Jackson, and Shearman, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary of the new body.

Since its institution the Amateur Athletic Association has had a career of even success. Although it proceeded cautiously at first, as there was a good deal of opposition to be met, it has-of recent years assumed a wholesome arbitrary power over all athletic meetings held in England; and it insists that the main provisions which are necessary for the maintenance of fair play and genuine amateurism shall be respected. The body occupies in fact the same position as the Jockey Club in the sport of flat racing on the turf, insisting that all meetings shall be held under its laws, proclaiming meetings at which such laws are not followed, and punishing athletes for any unfair practice in connection with athletics. Rule XVIII. of its present code provides for the suspension of any athlete who wilfully competes at a meeting held by any club or managing body which is not either, (1) affiliated to the Association, or (2) registered as an 'approved' club after application to the local officer of the Association, and both the affiliated and the registered clubs are bound to advertise their sports as being held 'under A.A.A. laws.' Such advertisement does not necessitate the adoption of the 'competition rules' given before, which are merely recommended, although as a matter of fact they are now almost universally adopted; nor, as we have seen above, is the club giving sports 'under A.A.A. laws' obliged to accept any entry of which it may for its own reasons disapprove.