BrianH
At the Start
Some of us on here (perhaps Venusian, Diver and a few others) will remember boys' comics such as Rover and Hotspur. Max Woosnam appears to be the hero of one of the stories in them but he was in fact a real life person.
I had never heard of him until reading a review of Mick Collins's book "All-round Genius", sub-titled "The Unkown Story Of Britain's Greatest Sportsman" published by Aurum Publishing at £14.99.
The reviewer in the Observer said that surely the book was a parody, something along the lines of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns". He went on to say that no, Woosnam really existed and had he been around today we would all have herad of him.
Maxwell Woosnam was a handsome First World War hero, in his early twenties as a lieutenant leading his men from the front firstly at Gallipoli and then in the trenches.
He was also one of the greatest allround amateur sportsman of his day. He captained Winchester in 1911, his second season in the XI, at cricket and golf. In 1911, when Wisden described him as one of the School players of the year, he hit 144 and 33 not out for a Public Schools XI against MCC at Lord's. Going up to Cambridge, he did not get a Blue for cricket, though he was 12th man in the 1912 match against Oxford, but he represented the University at Association football, captaining the side in 1914, lawn tennis and real tennis.
An outstanding centre-half, he played football for the Corinthians, with whom he was on tour in Brazil when the First World War broke out. After Army service, he played for three years for Manchester City, whom he captained, and in 1922 became one of the few amateurs to gain an England cap in a full International when he was chosen as captain against Wales.
At lawn tennis, he and R. Lycett won the doubles at Wimbledon in 1921 when he also captained the British Davis Cup team in America. At Antwerp in 1920 he won an Olympic Gold Medal as partner to O. G. N. Turnbull in the men's doubles and a silver medal in the mixed doubles.
He was also a scratch golfer and played table-tennis and snooker to a very high standard. He scored a 147 break at snooker and beat Charlie Chaplin (no mean player himself) at table tennis. Chaplin used a standard bat and Woosnam played with a butter knife.
It's Mick Collins's view that even were he around today Woosnam would have shunned the "celeb" life promoting soft drinks and fast cars. Part of his great charm lies in the fact that while he took his sport very seriously he didn't take the idea of it seriously at all. in the era when the notion of the professional sportsman was first entertained Woosnam remained defiantly amateur top the end. A man who concentrated on court and pitch but who in private was notorious for his laughter, his ease with himself and his love of a good practical joke.
It's difficult to argue with Collins's theory that Woosnam's cheerful attitude was born of his experiences in the war. When you have experienced the horrors of combat at first hand it's hard, perhaps, to take much else in life over seriously.
I had never heard of him until reading a review of Mick Collins's book "All-round Genius", sub-titled "The Unkown Story Of Britain's Greatest Sportsman" published by Aurum Publishing at £14.99.
The reviewer in the Observer said that surely the book was a parody, something along the lines of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns". He went on to say that no, Woosnam really existed and had he been around today we would all have herad of him.
Maxwell Woosnam was a handsome First World War hero, in his early twenties as a lieutenant leading his men from the front firstly at Gallipoli and then in the trenches.
He was also one of the greatest allround amateur sportsman of his day. He captained Winchester in 1911, his second season in the XI, at cricket and golf. In 1911, when Wisden described him as one of the School players of the year, he hit 144 and 33 not out for a Public Schools XI against MCC at Lord's. Going up to Cambridge, he did not get a Blue for cricket, though he was 12th man in the 1912 match against Oxford, but he represented the University at Association football, captaining the side in 1914, lawn tennis and real tennis.
An outstanding centre-half, he played football for the Corinthians, with whom he was on tour in Brazil when the First World War broke out. After Army service, he played for three years for Manchester City, whom he captained, and in 1922 became one of the few amateurs to gain an England cap in a full International when he was chosen as captain against Wales.
At lawn tennis, he and R. Lycett won the doubles at Wimbledon in 1921 when he also captained the British Davis Cup team in America. At Antwerp in 1920 he won an Olympic Gold Medal as partner to O. G. N. Turnbull in the men's doubles and a silver medal in the mixed doubles.
He was also a scratch golfer and played table-tennis and snooker to a very high standard. He scored a 147 break at snooker and beat Charlie Chaplin (no mean player himself) at table tennis. Chaplin used a standard bat and Woosnam played with a butter knife.
It's Mick Collins's view that even were he around today Woosnam would have shunned the "celeb" life promoting soft drinks and fast cars. Part of his great charm lies in the fact that while he took his sport very seriously he didn't take the idea of it seriously at all. in the era when the notion of the professional sportsman was first entertained Woosnam remained defiantly amateur top the end. A man who concentrated on court and pitch but who in private was notorious for his laughter, his ease with himself and his love of a good practical joke.
It's difficult to argue with Collins's theory that Woosnam's cheerful attitude was born of his experiences in the war. When you have experienced the horrors of combat at first hand it's hard, perhaps, to take much else in life over seriously.
