Heard a piece on the Today program on Radio 4 last week about a new book on a sportsman called Max Woosnam. Apparently he was brilliant at everything he did. Here is the introduction from the entry on him at Wikipedia –
Maxwell “Max” Woosnam (September 6, 1892 – July 14, 1965) was a British amateur sportsman who excelled in many sports during the early part of the 20th century. In lawn tennis he was an Olympic gold medallist and Wimbledon champion, both in doubles, as well as captain of the British Davis Cup team. In association football he was the captain of Manchester City and once played for and captained the England national team. In snooker he scored a maximum 147 break; in cricket he scored a century at Lord’s in a schoolboy match, and in a table tennis game against the actor and film director Charlie Chaplin he won while playing with a butter knife instead of a bat.
I love that last line about the table tennis. What a guy 🙂 The new book is available here.
Max Woosnam (1892-1965)