There is a foreword written by professor Snow to the book [A mathematician's apology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician%27s_Apology).

In the foreword, it is written some thing like the following:

 "Hardy was opposed to a certain mathematical competition in the UK because he believed that such competitions destroyed real mathematics in the UK during one century." 


My question is:

> What was that competition and why did he believe that the competition  destroyed real mathematics for a century?