Welsh Genius The Welshmen won—of course. Of two sorts of
competition you always say " of course." The Welsh are almost without rival as throwers of the quoit and as shoers of horses. Shoeing Competitions are still a regular feature of most agricultural, shows, and the events are hotly, contested ; but the Welsh (especially I 'fancy from the Carmarthen district) win an astonishingly large proportion of the prizes. They. are equally pre-eminent in throwing the quoit in competition with their neighbours, the English. Why this should be I do not know ; but I suppose quoit-throwing is more popular in Wales. In England its chief votaries are often the police (who: incidentally have won Olympic fame in the equally old English sport of the tug-of-war). It was a nine days' wonder in the sports held at Stockholm just before the War to see the world's teams wrestling in vain against the magnificent immobility of our Metropolitan Police. The Welsh- (who have much athletic genius) are good at quoits, absolutely as well as relatively. They like a heavy quoit, and you may choose any weight you please between 7 lb. t1,114 Al .1b. The distance is eighteen yards, a long distance for ,so, heavy a missile, yet they dealt in half or quarter inches and could slip in behind a rival quoit however minute the margin. I saw no bad,throw in the short time I was there ; and I should have reckoned a bad throw—so high was the standard—anything over two or three inches from the pin. Quoits might very well be added to the paraphernalia of the playing fields of many villages.
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