This is what student sports used to look like!
The postcard is of a sports day at St David’s College, Lampeter, and I would guess it is from the early twentieth century.
Can we say more?
The Welsh Gazette of Thursday 16 May 1912 reported that
The College athletic sports, which have not been held for some years, were resuscitated on Wednesday, when there was a good attendance of spectators. Principal Bebb was president, and Mr. C. E. S. Jones hon. sec. The Lampeter band was in attendance and played selections of music.
The reported results included 100 yards race, a freshman’s race, the high jump, 110 yards race, the long jump, the tug of war, and “tilting the bucket”. Cethin Jones and the Carr brothers (EC and KC) appear too have scooped most of the prizes.
(I hadn’t come across tilting the bucket before, but it seems to be a wheelbarrow-based jousting-adjacent affair, as described here with fabulous pictures. And also a wonderful video from a more recent highland games, where it does look to be an absolute hoot.)
Anyway, no sack race in 1912, so it wasn’t then. If we go back to 1881, the Western Mail of 28 March reports:
The annual athletic sports of the above college [St David’s College Lampeter] were held on Friday, on the college cricket ground. The day, though a rather cold one, was fairly fine, and neither attendants nor competitors were much disturbed by one or two slight hail showers. The competitions throughout were well contested, but, as a result of the strong wind blowing, together with the heaviness of the ground caused by the late rainfalls, the times were not as good as might have been expected.
The sports this time included the 100 yards flat race, throwing the cricket ball (the report noting that it was into a strong wind), 440 yards race, two mile walking race, putting the weight (16lb), drop kick, mile race, hurdle race, high jump, steeple chase, and the egg-and-spoon race.
And there was a sack race, won by J M Jones. So we know that Lampeter did hold sack races. My best guess, therefore, is that the photo on the card is from the 1913 or 1914 sports days. And they look like they are having a lot of fun.
Sack racing was included, apparently, as a demonstration sport at the 1904 St Louis Olympic games, but sadly has never made it onto the official roster of sports.
Here’s a jigsaw of the card. It’s unsent, but in pencil on the back is written St David’s College, Lampeter. And if you’d like to read a bit more about the college, I wrote about it back in 2022.