Book description
The Bumper Book of Slightly Forgotten British Olympians and Other
Sporting Heroes is just that: a collection of stirring tales of pluck,
grit, triumph, disaster and on occasion, ineptitude, featuring a host
of former sportspeople who've been utterly forgotten by history. From
Maude Waveney, the plucky servant girl who bravely took half a day off
work scrubbing kitchen floors to win a gold medal folding bedsheets in
the first London games, to Tom Drake, Dressage's first punk, who
shocked the sport with his slashed jacket and swear words on his hat.
There's the tale of the Lincolnshire javelin thrower who fell under
the spell of a cult devoted to the eating of egg and chips; of the
mascot of Bexhill-on-Sea's ill fated bid to host the Olympics and
"Ample" Arthur Cartwright, whose football career was
blighted by an obsession with archaeology. They, and many others, all
have a story to tell.
