C B Fry

I was recently given an old postcard of C B Fry to include on my website and so did a little research into the gentleman. He was an extraordinary sportsman, probably the best all-round cricketer of his age and successful at whatever sport took his fancy. He was England and Sussex captain at cricket and held various batting records during his career. As an athlete he held the world long-jump record for a while. He played football for Oxford University, Southampton and later Portsmouth, and Rugby for Oxford, Blackheath and the Barbarians.

Outside sport, he was a teacher at Charterhouse and with his wife was in charge of HMS Mercury, then a training ship for boys who wished to enter the Royal Navy. In politics he was a relative failure, being defeated as a Liberal candidate for parliament; in his spare time he wrote nine books, did some cricket commentaries for the BBC and wrote for various newspapers.

In later life his mental health deteriorated and he did some bizarre things, such as trying to persuade Ribbentrop that Germany should take up Test Cricket and running naked on Brighton Beach.

But what appeals to me about this man is, as Neville Cardus wrote, that he played games because he enjoyed them and not for personal financial gain. He was the true amateur, something which I admire.