Some of you may have seen David Beckham
catch a tennis ball at Wimbledon yesterday, so I immediately thought
of “all rounders” and those sportsmen, especially footballers who
play more than one sport. These days of course professional
footballers cannot afford to take up other games and notably injuries
occur even in a friendly moment. Geoff Hurst played for Essex CCC,
Ian Botham played for Scunthorpe FC, David Bairstow was at Bradford
City, the Neville brothers could have played serious cricket but
devoted their time successfully to football and of course Gary
Lineker was a decent batsman. I know, I played with him!
But we have to go back to the halcyon
days of GO Smith, Max Woosnam and Charles Burgess Fry to find the
true polymaths.
Notably, Fry was a footballer,
cricketer, athlete, politician, teacher, writer and taught at
Charterhouse for two years from 1896.
He went to Repton School in Derbyshire
where he played in teams ahead of his time and then Wadham College,
Oxford. He got Blues in soccer, cricket, athletics, could have got
one in rugby but was injured, he skated and was a mean golfer.
He didn't do too well in his exams and got a “fourth” apparently. Nevertheless, he would get a job in some establishment and he ended up appearing on the Brains Trust, a BBC Radio panel “game” and also was the subject of BBC TVs “This is Your Life” with Eamonn Andrews in 1955.
He didn't do too well in his exams and got a “fourth” apparently. Nevertheless, he would get a job in some establishment and he ended up appearing on the Brains Trust, a BBC Radio panel “game” and also was the subject of BBC TVs “This is Your Life” with Eamonn Andrews in 1955.
John Arlott, the famed cricket
commentator, described CB as “the most variously gifted Englishman
of any age”
CB played in an FA Cup Final for
Southampton against Sheffield United in 1901-2 and for England
against Ireland in that year, he equalled the world long jump record
at one time, was once offered the honour of being the King of Albania
and played 26 times for England at cricket, averaging 32 and nearly
400 first class games for Sussex and Hampshire, averaging 50.
His party piece was to stand facing a fireplace and leap with a 180 degree turn onto his feet on the mantelpiece, facing his audience. He died in 1956, his ashes are buried in Repton parish church graveyard and he had two Brighton and Hove buses named after him!
His party piece was to stand facing a fireplace and leap with a 180 degree turn onto his feet on the mantelpiece, facing his audience. He died in 1956, his ashes are buried in Repton parish church graveyard and he had two Brighton and Hove buses named after him!
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