Worlds Apart In Sport (9 July 1976)
While writing my recent article about Bletchley’s Olympic runner, Charles George Constable, the thought came into my head that sometime I might look back on local athletic and sporting achievements with a view to finding the best all-rounder Bletchley has even produced.
I have now chosen my man and I nominate him not only champion of Bletchley, but champion of North Bucks as a whole, although if anyone can suggest a better candidate. I will gladly concede it.
Well then, my choice is the late Ernest A Matthews, or “Ernie” as he was known in sporting circles. I can see many people smiling at this. Indeed, I can’t help smiling myself. For Mr Matthews was equally well known locally in a far different role – that of a funeral undertaker, he being the grandfather of the present Mr Matthews, who carries on the same business.
IMPRESSIVE
I knew him only in his later years, but even then he was an impressive figure both on the bowls green and when heading a funeral precession before what he called “the screws” finally got a grip on him.
Mr Matthews was my nomination mainly because he represented Buckinghamshire at no fewer than three entirely different sports – athletics, soccer, and bowls.
For eight successive years he was county high jump champion. He was aged 30 when he first won the event and he retired unbeaten at the age of 38. How’s that for late development?
He was also fleet of foot, being county 120 yards hurdles champion and taking part in national events at Stamford Bridge.
At soccer he first played for Fenny Stars and later for Bletchley Sports (the forerunner of Bletchley Town, now Milton Keynes City).
39 GOALS
He also played for the county. In one season he scored 39 goals with headers alone from corner kicks taken by the same kicker, Billy Lord.
He first won a bowls competition before he became high jump champion, then dropped the game only to return to it years later and continue his winning ways.
He won the Town Club’s singles cup and the Conservative Club’s singles cup and represented the county many times.
Though never what he called a “serious” cricketer, he once took 8 wickets for 7 runs against Woburn Sands and hit 96 not out the same evening.
I wonder what would have happened if he had been serious?
His highest jumps were not much more than 5ft 6in. When I remarked that this seemed a bit low by county standards he replied: “Ah well, you see, in those days we did not have the straddle or the side roll. I ran directly at the target like a hurdler and jumped with both feet together. It’s hard to say what I could have done by modern methods.”
BACK FLOP
And I don’t suppose anybody would have tried the back flop with only a bit of sand to land on.
This anecdote shows how difficult, even how futile it is to compare present and past performances in sport generally. Rules, techniques and conditions have all change enormously over the years.
There was the change in the lbw rule at cricket, in the offside rule at soccer, in the touch-kicking rule at rugger, in the play-the-ball rule at Rugby League. Equipment has changed at golf and tennis.
In 1924, Harold Abrahams equalled the world record by running the 100 yards in 9.6 seconds. He also won an Olympic gold medal that year by running 100 metres in 10.6 seconds. But he did this without starting blocks and on “dead” tracks.
He also seems to have done without the old running corks. Remember those running corks? How you gripped them in your fists in the belief that this would add determination to your effort?
Today’s kick start must be worth a good deal to the runner, to say nothing of the much springier tracks. Only the marathon gets near to being the same old slog as ever.
TECHNIQUE
Perhaps the greatest change in technique has been in swimming. In competitions the breast-stroke is the only survivor of the strokes used in my young days. I remember swimming being revolutionised by the crawl, which was first known as the Australian crawl because it came from that part of the world. This superseded the trudgeon stroke used by previous sprinters. The back crawl likewise superseded the old back-stroke. And now there is the butterfly as well.
Truly, in sport, as in nearly everything else, we live in a different world.
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