• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

Unlikely Sporting Glory

PhilTheFragger said:
No doubt Imurg will be along in a minute to remind us of his 10 wicket haul which turned out to be the best bowling figures in the whole of Bucks in about 1982

:blah:
Click to expand...
Primary School cricket this. I got 53* in our teams effort of 80 something all out. Then bowled the opposition out for 27 and I got all 10 wickets. 8 bowled, 1 LBW and 1 caught at forward short leg. Fairly decent day
 
Had a £10 bet on with a kid at school that I could make a shot from half way on the basketball court. Nailed it first time. Never tried again. He never paid me. I was 13 at the time.

My best bowling figures were 5/20 against a very decent grammar school whilst I was 14. 2 were caught going for 6. Both great catches made by the same guy (John Connell, amazed I remember his name). 1 was bowled and 2 were LBW (I was a left armed off-spinner).

My other cricket performances from that year were very poor in the slips. I took two catches all year (which were the harder ones to catch) and dropped everything else. I reduced our opening bowler to tears in one game when I must have dropped about 5 catches.
 
I remember going to Barnstaple fair back in the 80s and went on a dart throwing stall trying to win a massive cuddly bear for my then girlfriend,you know the ones rubbish light darts and bare dartboards so you were lucky if they ever stayed in at all.

To win it was treble 20 bulls eye and the 25 and I won, walking around the fair with it was like a dog with 2 you know what.

I think the girlfriend loved me even more that night.
 
At school, when snowball fights we're still allowed, the 6th form used to take on the rest of the school at lunchtimes.
The Head Boy was goading us 5th formers, offering up his face as a target.
I stepped up and took the challenge.
One snowball from 20 yards and he was so confident he swore he wouldn't move...

Nearly took his head off:rofl::clap::whoo:
 
Being a GB baseball player, all my mates were daring me to have a go at the coconut shy one year at the Epsom Downs fair. One throw, destroyed a coconut with pieces going everywhere. Just put the other balls down and walked off after the one throw. Still living off that one some 25 years later.
 
Razor Ruddock played in my place in our football team the weekend I got married, I got back in the following week - I think he was about 12 years old.

One I'm not proud of - when I was about 15 a gang of lads on our estate were throwing their weight about, I said that I wasn't afraid of them. They decided that they would arrange a fight between one of them and me which I reluctantly accepted and a few nights later a gang of them banged on my front door to have this fight. After a bit of girly handbags I hit this lad with a beaut of an uppercut to the body and he collapsed like a sack of poop, absolutely sparko. They carried him into next doors house to revive him - I never had any issues on our estate after that!
 
chrisd said:
Razor Ruddock played in my place in our football team the weekend I got married, I got back in the following week - I think he was about 12 years old.

One I'm not proud of - when I was about 15 a gang of lads on our estate were throwing their weight about, I said that I wasn't afraid of them. They decided that they would arrange a fight between one of them and me which I reluctantly accepted and a few nights later a gang of them banged on my front door to have this fight. After a bit of girly handbags I hit this lad with a beaut of an uppercut to the body and he collapsed like a sack of poop, absolutely sparko. They carried him into next doors house to revive him - I never had any issues on our estate after that!
Click to expand...

Always thought you were 'Ard Grandad😀
 
Imurg said:
Always thought you were 'Ard Grandad😀
Click to expand...

I was talking to Razor a little while back and he said he'd played a few times for the team and I reminded him of the occasion and joked that I'd got my place back, he rather arrogantly said " you never got my England place though" all I could think to say was "no, but somebody else did"
 
chrisd said:
I was talking to Razor a little while back and he said he'd played a few times for the team and I reminded him of the occasion and joked that I'd got my place back, he rather arrogantly said " you never got my England place though" all I could think to say was "no, but somebody else did"
Click to expand...

Chris "Granite" D.......😀😀😀
 
Now when I was in the Army! :D

Just out of training and at my first posting in Germany, the Athletics team were looking for an 800 metre runner - I was super fit then.

They asked anyone to turn up for a race and the winner would get in the team. Never run competitively before but thought I'll have a go at that. About a dozen of us turned up, they all blasted off leaving me last but I thought gotta pace myself, and sure enough gradually picked em all off on the 2nd lap to finish with a sprint.

Got picked for the team and first day at training they asked me to race the then present 800 metre runner, beat him as well to cement my place in the team!
 
Playing in an inter-department softball match about 20yrs ago) we came up against up whole team of Americans (Lockheed Martin were working with BAe at the time). Of course the Americans had all the gear - including the fancy catching gloves - and we had none. I got one of their lads out by sprinting forward and hurling myself horizontally through the air to make a spectacular two-handed catch - and it's a hard ball. Of course being a goalie hurling myself through the air trying to catch something was just what I did. The Americans jaws dropped at the utter superlative nature of the catch.

One year some time before, five of us in my department had put a team into the green bowls competition. We'd got pretty useful at playing indoor carpet bowls with little balls - but only one of us had ever played outdoor green bowls. We won the league :)

The greatest sporting compliment I ever got was from one lad who played in our weekly 6-a-side kick around. He'd played at a high amateur/semi-pro level in his time - and after one game - he was on the other side that week - in which I had pulled off multiple great saves and stops - he said I was one of the best stoppers of the ball he'd ever come up against. I was a pretty useful goalie in my younger years and well into my 30s - if only I'd been a few inches taller - who knows...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top