Charles Burgess (C.B.) Fry was born in Croydon on 25th April 1872. He has been referred to as ‘The Best Sportsman to have ever lived’, and ‘The Superman’ – massive praise in fact, but does he are living up to the nicknames?
Fry proved himself to be a outstanding scholar as well as an athlete all through his time at Repton Public Faculty and Wadham College Oxford, to which he had gained a scholarship. All through his time at Oxford he received 12 sporting Blues and in a person 12 months he captained the football, cricket and athletic teams. These dedication to activity gained him the nickname ‘Almighty’ and ‘Lord Oxford’. At the same time he was also actively playing rugby for his university, Blackheath and the Barbarians. And we seriously really don’t know wherever he discovered the time but he was also a good boxer, golfer, tennis player, javelin thrower, sculler and swimmer.
He turned a specialist footballer when he was signed to Southampton and achieved the FA Cup Last with them in 1901/02. He amazed the powers that be so a great deal during his debut match versus Tottenham Spurs that he was picked to play for England in a match in opposition to Ireland.
He equalled the world extensive soar document with a 23 foot 6.5 inch bounce in 1893. With no official coaching in long jumping he was so blasé about the function that he ready for the bounce by smoking a cigar and resumed smoking it on completing the soar!
At the London White Town Stadium Fry won each the lengthy jump and the 100 yards sprint, at the world’s 1st international athletics occasion. It is considered that he was extra than capable of winning medals (more than probable gold) at the 1896 Olympics, but he was as well fast paced in South Africa with the England cricket team. Cricket was most certainly the sport that Fry excelled in the most. He captained both of those Sussex and England, and England under no circumstances shed when he was in demand. He scored 94 1st-course hundreds of years as effectively as six consecutive centuries – a report that nevertheless stands now. His career batting common was 50, and in 1901 he totalled 3147 operates, an normal of 78 operates for every innings.
It was not just in activity that Fry excelled – he was director of training ship Mercury and turned boys into naval gentlemen the founder and star journalist of Fry’s journal, a publication aimed at younger guys for whom Fry was a hero a deputy and speechwriter for the Indian delegation at the League of Nations and he also stood as Liberal applicant for Parliament in Brighton. It was though he was operating for the League of Nations that he was made available the vacant throne of Albania! He failed to choose the position as he would have desired an income of £10,000 a 12 months and Fry was generally brief of dollars so failed to exactly suit the profile! He also wrote cricket books, a bestselling novel and an autobiography!
In 1921 he once more appeared for Sussex from the visiting Australians, scoring 59 and 37 in the two innings. The England selectors asked Fry to captain the countrywide aspect but at 49 many years of age he declined the present and retired from cricket completely. Fry died in 1956 and in our view undoubtedly warrants the title of finest sportsman to have ever lived
