#c.b. fry

C.B. Fry

Taking a risk in 2018 #followyourdreams #FitnessInstructor

It’s that time of year when people are thinking about their hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Even if you don’t believe in making New Year’s Resolutions, chances are you’ve been thinking about how you might want your year to go and have perhaps been thinking about making some changes. Maybe 2018 will be the year when you take a risk and try something new. At the end of 2017, I qualified as a…

Charles Burgess Fry in 1903.

The accolade for the most complete sportsman arguably belongs to CB Fry. He was known first as an England cricketer and footballer, also as a great all-round athlete who for a while held the long jump record. According to folklore he prepared for his long jump record in 1893 by smoking a cigar. John Arlott called him “the most variously gifted Englishman of any age.” Combined with his sporting prowess he was a notable scholar, so while he gained a first-class degree in Classics from Oxford University, he also collected 12 Blues and captained the University at football, cricket and athletics. He was also good enough at rugby union to play for Blackheath and the Barbarians, and showed an aptitude for other sports such as rowing, tennis and golf.

Cricket was the sport at which Fry excelled and England never lost a Test Match while he was captain. In scoring over 30,000 runs when the conditions heavily favoured the bowlers, one of his finest individual accomplishments came in 1901 when he scored six centuries in consecutive matches; a feat that had never been achieved before and one that has only been matched by Don Bradman and Mike Procter in first-class cricket since, but never beaten. In 1921 after playing for Sussex against Australia, the selectors approached him about captaining the side again. At the age of 49 he politely declined the offer and subsequently retired from cricket for good.