On the 7 August 1872, the Scottish professional golfer, ‘Willie’ Auchterlonie, was born in St Andrews, Fife. Willie won his only Open Championship in 1893, with a score of 78-81-81-82 – 322, defeating the amateur Johnny Laidlay by a two strokes.

At the age of 21, Willie became the second youngest Open Champion ever after Young Tom Morris.

In 23 years, Willie only ever played in the Open Championship,he competed 15 times in all, and finished in the top ten three times, including the one win to his credit. His brother, Laurie Auchterlonie won the US Open in 1902.

Willie Auchterlonie was an honorary professional at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews for nearly a quarter of a century. He began his working life as an apprentice to the club makers R. Forgan & Son, and ran a club making business for most of his adult life, together with some golf course design..

There is still a golf shop called Auchterlonie’s in St Andrews.

Willie died in Kirkaldy in 1963 aged 90.

7 August, 2019

On the 6 August 1997, Sri Lanka posted a world record score of 952 runs, in 271 overs, for the loss of 6 wickets, in the first Test Match of a two match series against India in Colombo.

India won the toss and elected to bat first on a submissive pitch, declaring just before the end of the second day on 537 for 8 after 167.3 overs. With centuries coming from Navjot Sidhu [111], Mohammad Azharuddin [126], and Sachin Tendulkar [143].

Before Sri Lanka began its world record reply, India’s captain Tendulkar promised his bowlers would ‘attack for three days’. Left-arm spinner, Nilesh Kulkarni, dutifully obliged by claiming the wicket of Marvan Atapattu in the last over of the day with just 39 runs on the board, becoming only the 12th bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in a Test match.

Team-mates from Colombo’s Bloomfield club, batted throughout the third day, in a partnership of 576, the longest stand in Test history, with Sanath Jayasuriya scoring 340 and Roshan Mahanama contributing 225. Only three players have made higher scores than Jayasuriya in Test matches, Brian Lara [375], Garry Sobers [365 not out], and Len Hutton [364].

Aravinda de Silva made his 12th Test century [126], and the Arjuna Ranatunga became the first Sri Lankan to pass 4,000 Test runs with his score of 86 before being run out.

With all prospect of a result long gone, a score of 1,000 seemed a possibility, but as there was no chance of a result a halt was called with just 7 of the last 20 overs bowled, and the match declared a draw.

6 August, 2019

On the 5 August 1901, the Irish track and field athlete Peter O’Connor (1872-1957) set the long-standing world record for the long jump in Dublin  at 24 feet 11 3/4 inches [7.61 metres].

This was the first IAAF recognised long jump world record. It caused a sensation at the time, being only a fraction short of the 25 feet barrier, and remained unbeaten for 20 years, a longevity surpassed only by Jesse Owens’ 25-year record and Bob Beamon’s 23-year record, and the current record of Mike Powell. It remained an Irish record for a remarkable 89 years.

Born in Millom, Cumberland, England in 1872, O’Connor grew up in County Wicklow, Ireland, where he joined the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1896.

In 1899 he won All-Ireland medals in long jump, high jump and hop, step and jump (triple jump). The British Amateur Athletic Association invited him to represent Britain in the Olympic Games in 1900, but he refused as he only wished to represent Ireland.

O’Connor set several unofficial world records in the long jump, and won two Olympic medals in the 1906 Intercalated Games.

The Intercalated Olympic Games were initially designed to become a series of International Olympic Games, halfway between what is now known as the Games of the Olympiad. This proposed series of games, intercalated in the Olympic Games cycle, was scheduled to always be held in Athens, and were to have equal status with the international games. However, the only such games were held in 1906.

At the flag-raising ceremony, in protest at the flying of the Union Flag for his second place, O’Connor scaled a flagpole in the middle of the field and waved the Irish flag. In the hop, step and jump competition two days later, O’Connor beat his fellow-countryman, Con Leahy, to win the gold medal. At 34 he was the oldest ever gold medal winner.

O’Connor remained involved in athletics all his life. He was a founder member and first Vice-President of Waterford Athletic Club, and attended later Olympics both as judge and spectator. He practiced as a solicitor in Waterford, where he died in 1957.

5 August, 2019

On the 4 August, 1976, England’s women cricketers did one-day cricket proud at ‘the home of cricket ‘. The first time women had been permitted to play on the hallowed square at Lord’s.

England defeated Australia by eight wickets to level the three-match 60 over series. An enthusiastic crowd, larger than that of many mid-week county matches, watched Australia make 161 in 59.4 overs, and England reply with a match winning score of 162 for 2 in 56.2 overs.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Clearly nervous in the heady Lord’s atmosphere, Australia had a disastrous first hour, but was later rescued later by Sharon Tredrea, supported by Wendy Hills, with Tredrea hitting as powerfully as a man, the pair combined to change the shape of the game. With the last Australian pair, Marie Lutschini and Wendy Blunsden, added a further 32 runs for the last wicket.

With England chasing runs against the fast bowling of Sharon Tredrea and the left-arm medium of Anne Gordon, Enid Bakewell and Lynne Thomas gave England a fine start, scoring 85 before a mix-up resulted in Enid Bakewell being run out for 50. She was succeeded by the left-hander Chris Watmough, who gave a fine display of batting, hitting eight fours, supporting the captain, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, in a partnership of 69.

England 162 for 2 [ Bakewell 50 – Watmough 50 not out]. Australia 161 [Tredrea 54]

4 August, 2019

On the 2 August, 1882, the English professional golfer, George Jonathan Sargent [1882-1962) was was born in Brockham, Surrey. When he was young boy the family moved to Epsom  where he began his golf career at age 12 at Epsom Downs GC.

In 1899 Sargent spent some time at Ganton GC under Harry Vardon, and first made an impact in the 1901 Open Championship at Muirfield.

Soon afterwards he became the professional at Dewsbury GC, later emigrating to Canada, where he served as professional at Royal Ottawa GC and finished second in the 1908 Canadian Open. He married his wife Beatrice in 1907 and fathered eleven children.

Sargent won the 1909 US Open at Englewood GC in New Jersey. Setting a new 72 hole record at the time for the tournament of 75-72-72-71 – 290, to defeat Tom McNamara [USA] by 4 strokes.

He played in sixteen US Opens in total, and finished in the top 10 six times. He also won the 1912 Canadian Open and the 1918 Minnesota State Open.

Sargent became a member of the American PGA at its inception in 1916, and served as its President for five years. He is credited with introducing the use of motion pictures to study the golf swing. He was head professional at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, from 1912 to 1924, at Interlachen Country Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1924 to 1928, at the Chevy Chase Club from 1928 to 1932, and at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1932 until his retirement fifteen years later.

 He is a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, as are two of his sons Harold and Jack.

He died in Atlanta, Georgia in 1962, aged 79.

2 August, 2019

On the 1^st August 1871, the American cricketer, John Ashby Lester , was born in Penrith, Cumbria. Lester was one of the Philadelphian cricketers who played from the end of the 19 century until the outbreak of the first World War.

He began playing cricket at a very young age, and was playing a game in Yorkshire in 1892 when he met Dr. Isaac Sharpless, the President of Haverford College, who invited him to the US to attend the school, where he developed his batting style.  

As a student at Haverford, Lester excelled as an athlete and a scholar and played football, track, tennis, and soccer. During his freshman year, he averaged 100.5 runs per innings. Lester also won the Cope Bat every year during his time at Haverford. In his final season with the school in 1896, he scored 1,185 total runs and took 40 wickets for averages of 79 and 23.2, respectively.

He captained Haverford on their first overseas tour, scoring 105 against the MCC, his first appearance at Lord’s.  Lester created a great impression on the tour, with an average of over 84 and prepared himself for the Philadelphian’s tour of England the following year. 

The tour undertaken by the Philadelphian cricketers was very ambitious, and the results hoped for by its promoters were not achieved. The tour was arranged mainly for educational purposes and few of those on the American side expected to win many matches. Previous tours had tended to involve amateur English sides as opponents, with a low level of competition.

In 1897 a schedule was prepared including all of the top county cricket teams, the Oxford and Cambridge University teams, the Marylebone Cricket Club, and two other sides, though only a few of the counties thought it worthwhile to put their best elevens onto the field. The tour began in June 1897, at Oxford, and lasted for two months ending at The Oval.

Initially it aroused some curiosity, although English fans lost interest, that is until Lester and the Philadelphians sealed a victory against the full Sussex team at Brighton. With Lester and Bart King scored 107 in a fourth-wicket partnership, Lester top-scoring with 92. He continued in the second innings with 34 not out.

Despite the excitement the Americans did not fare well overall. Fifteen matches were played, but the team only won two, the other win coming against Warwickshire. In all the Philadelphians lost nine games and earned a draw in four. During this match at Edgbaston, Lester scored 35 runs in the first innings and 67 in the second.

Lester was the best batsmen on the Philadelphian side, beginning with 72 not out in his first match, he kept up his form all through the tour, scoring 891 runs at an average 37.12.

Despite several counties offering him contracts to play in England, during his career with the Philadelphians, he played 53 matches, 47 of which were first class, scoring 2,552 runs, his top score being 126 not out. He bowled 2,314 balls and collected 57 wickets, his best average being 7 for 31.

From 1897 until his retirement in 1908, Lester led the batting averages in Philadelphia and captained all the international home matches. He died in Haverford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1969, and as a lasting memorial, the pavilion at Cope Field is named in his honour. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, described him as ‘one of the great figures in American cricket’.

1st August, 2019

On the 31 July, 2012, equestrian Zara Anne Elizabeth Tindall MBE [née Phillips] [Born 1981], a member of the Great Britain Equestrian Team at the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, she won a silver medal in the team event on High Kingdom, which was presented to her by her mother, Princess Anne, the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II.

A member of the British royal family, at birth, she was 6th in line of succession to the British throne, she is now 18^th. Zara Tindall was born in May 1981, at St Mary’s Hospital, London. She was baptised Zara Anne Elizabeth in July 1981, at Windsor Castle.

During her schooldays, Tindall excelled at many sporting activities, representing her schools in hockey, athletics and gymnastics. She later studied at University of Exeter and qualified as a physiotherapist.

Riding her horse Toytown, Tindall collected individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship in Blenheim, and won the Eventing World Championship in Aachen, Germany, in 2006. In the same year was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year,  an award won by her mother won in 1971. She also collected individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, making her the reigning Eventing World Champion until 2010.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours for her services to equestrianism. In 2012, she carried an Olympic flame at Cheltenham Racecourse on her horse Toytown.

Her godparents are her maternal uncle, Prince Andrew, the Countess of Lichfield, Helen, Lady Stewart (wife of Sir Jackie Stewart), Andrew Parker Bowles, and Hugh Thomas. Tindall herself is godmother to Prince George of Cambridge.

 Tindall went to Beaudesert Park School in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and Port Regis School in Shaftrsbury, Dorset, before following other members of the Royal Family in attending Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland. During her schooldays, Tindall excelled at many sporting activities, representing her schools in hockey, athletics and gymnastics. She later studied at University of Exeter and qualified as a physiotherapist. In December 2000, she had a severe car crash near Bourton-on-the-Water.

Tindall, who is a keen supporter of numerous charitable causes, met the Gloucestershire and England rugby union player, Mike Tindall, during England’s Rugby World Cup-winning campaign in Australia in 2003. Their wedding was held in July 2011 at the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. with 400 guests in attendance. The marriage was officiated by the Reverend Neil Gardner. Her off-the-peg ivory silk dress designed by Stewart Parvin featured a chevron-pleated bodice, a dropped waist, and a ‘cathedral-length’ train.’ The Meander Tiara  was lent to her and secured the veil. Dolly Maude was her maid of honour, and her paternal half-sister Stephanie Phillips was among the bridesmaids. A reception was held at Holyrood Palace following the service.

In January 2013 it was reported that the Tindalls had sold their £1.2 million home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and were moving to the Gatcombe Park estate near Minchinhampton.

Tindall gave birth to a daughter, Mia Grace in January 2014, their second daughter, Lena Elizabeth was born in June 2018

Like her parents, Tindall is an accomplished equestrian. In June 2003, she announced that she had secured a sponsorship deal with Cantor Index, a leading company in spread betting, to help cover the costs of her equestrian career. She finished runner up at Burghley Horse Trials in 2003 in her first four-star event. Riding her horse Toytown, Tindall collected individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship in Blenheim, and individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, making her the reigning Eventing World Champion until 2010. The same year after her win in Germany, she was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British viewing public (an award her mother won in 1971). She was also appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours for her services to equestrianism. Despite winning team gold at the 2007 European Eventing Championships in Italy, she failed to defend her individual title after a problem in the show-jumping phase of the competition.

On the 30 July 1889, the amateur cricketer, Charles Alfred Absolom, died aged 43 in an accident when cargo was being loaded onto a ship at Port of Spain in Trinidad. 

Born at Blackheath, Kent in 1846, Absolom played cricket for Cambridge University, Kent CCC and England, from 1866-1879.

Educated in Calne, Wiltshire, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Nicknamed the ‘Cambridge Navvy’, a reference to his size and strength, he won Blues in cricket and athletics at Cambridge before graduating in 1870. In 18 matches for the university he took over 100 wickets and played in the Varsity Match in each year between 1866 and 1869. He played in several games for the Gentlemen against the Players and in 1868 started playing for Kent CCC. After Cambridge he enrolled at Inner Temple but did not complete his law studies.^[1]

In 1868, whilst playing for Cambridge, Absolom became the first batsman in first-class cricket to be given out obstructing the field, when a ball being returned to the wicket came into contact with his bat whilst he was attempting to complete a seventh run. [Remind you of anything similar recently ?].

Absolom toured Australia with Lord Harris’s team in 1878-1879 and played in the only Test Match of the tour. He was selected by Harris, his county captain, for the tour, although at 32 both his batting and his bowling ability were declining. After Australia’s Fred Spofforth had taken a hat-trick and helped reduce England to 26 for 7, Absolom came in and made 52 runs from ninth in the batting order, adding 63 runs with Harris for the eighth wicket.

He did not play another Test match, and completed his career with Kent at the end of the 1879 season, He played in 57 matches and took 87 wickets.

Absolom left England in 1880 to travel. He spent time in the Americas and became a ship’s purser on the SS Orinoco and the SS Muriel. Little more was heard of him for the remainder of his life. 

30 July, 2019

On the 29 July 2015, the Irish-British correspondent, and horse racing commentator, Sir Peter O’Sullevan CBE, died at his home in London, aged 97 (1918-2015).

Known as the ‘Voice of Racing’, he was the BBC’s leading horse racing commentator from 1947-1997, during which he described some of the greatest moments in the history of the Grand National.

During his 50 years of commentating on the Grand National, he covered numerous historic victories, including Bob Champion’s run on Aldaniti in 1981 after recovering from cancer, the 100/1 outsider Foinavon’s unexpected win in 1967, and the three-times winner Red Rum in 1973, 1974 and 1977. He also commentated on the 1993 Grand National, which was declared void after 30 of the 39 runners failed to realise there had been a false start, and seven went on to complete the course. As the runners approached the second-last fence in the so-called ‘race that never was’, O’Sullevan declared it ‘the greatest disaster in the history of the Grand National.’

On television, O’Sullevan commentated on many major events of the racing year, including the Cheltenham Festival until 1994, The Derby until 1979, and the Grand National, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood until he retired in 1997.

During his career, he commentated on around 30 runnings of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris and racing from the United States and Ireland as well as trotting from Rome during the 1960s.

O’Sullevan was involved in some of the earliest television commentaries on any sport in the late 1940s and made many radio commentaries in his earlier years, including the Grand National before it was televised for the first time in 1960.

In 2010, Aintree Racecourse named O’Sullevan as one of the eight inaugural ‘Grand National Legends’.

The son of Colonel John Joseph O’Sullevan DSO, resident magistrate at Killarney, Peter O’Sullevan was born in Newcastle, County Down, before returning as an infant to his parents’ home at Kenmare, County Kerry, but was brought up in Surrey, England. Educated at Hawtreys, Charterhouse, and later at Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland. 

In a television interview before his 50th and last Grand National in 1997, he revealed that his commentary binoculars came from a German submarine.

In 1997 he was knighted the same year, the only sports broadcaster at that time to have been bestowed that honour.

O’Sullevan was also a racehorse owner, including Be Friendly, which won the King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot, and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. He was twice successful in the Haydock Sprint Cup [then Vernons Sprint] in 1966 and 1967. Another horse he owned was Attivo, whose victory in the 1974 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival was described by O’Sullevan as the most difficult race to call. After passing the line, O’Sullevan spluttered, ‘And it’s first Attivo, owned by, uh, Peter O’Sullevan… trained by Cyril Mitchell and ridden by Robert Hughes.’ Attivo also won the Chester Cup and the Northumberland Plate during the 1970s.

O’Sullevan’s final race commentary came at Newbury for the 1997 Hennessy Gold Cup, and he visited the winners’ enclosure as a winning owner in the race which followed courtesy of Sounds Fyne’s victory in the Fulke Walwyn Chase. He was succeeded as the BBC’s lead commentator by Jim McGrath.

After his retirement, O’Sullevan was actively involved in charity work fundraising for causes which revolve around the protection of horses and farm animals, including the International League for the Protection of Horses [ILPH], the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre and Compassion in World Farming. The National Hunt Challenge Chase Cup (run at the Cheltenham Festival) was named after him in 2008 to celebrate his 90th birthday.

His name is inscribed on a commemorative plaque at the course, alongside the likes of Ginger McCain and Captain Martin Becher.

O’Sullevan met his wife Patricia Duckworth, at a ball in Manchester in 1947. She died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2010.

29 July, 2019

On the 28 July, 1987, professional golfer, Dame Laura Jane Davies, DBE (born 1963) won the first of her four major titles, the US Women’s Open Championshipship, at Plainfield GC, Edison, New Jersey. in an 18 hole play-off over Ayako Okamoto and JoAnne Carner.

At the time of her victory Davies was not a member of the LPGA Tour, so the LPGA amended its constitution to grant Davies automatic membership.

Davies is the nation’s most accomplished British female golfer of modern times. She was the first non-American to head the LPGA money list, as well as winning the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit a record seven times in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2006.

A native of Coventry, Davies turned professional in 1985. She compiled an impressive record as an amateur international player for Great Britain, and was the 1983 English Intermediate Champion, the 1984 Welsh Open Stroke Play Champion, and the South Eastern Champion in both 1983 and 1984. She was also a member of the Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup Team in 1984.

Davies began her professional career on what is now the Ladies European Tour, when she won both Rookie of the Year and Order of Merit titles. She subsequently won the Sports Journalists’ Association Peter Wilson Trophy as International Newcomer of the Year 1985. Laura repeated her Order of Merit victory in 1986 having won four titles, one of which was the British Women’s Open prior to it becoming a major.

In 1988 Davies won twice as a rookie on the LPGA Tour, three times on the Ladies European Tour and once in Japan, becoming the first woman ever to win on all three major Tours in the same year.

Davies has 85 professional worldwide wins to her credit, 20 of which were on the LPGA Tour, including four majors. 

From 1985 to 2010, she won at least one individual title somewhere in the world every season, except for 2005, and was the first golfer, male or female, to win tournaments on five continents in one year.

A member of US based LPGA Tour and a life member of the Ladies European Tour, Davies was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015.

In 1990 she was a member of the inaugural European Solheim Cup Team, and became the only player to participate in the first dozen Solheim Cup matches on either the United States or European side. Davies is the all-time leader in points won in the Solheim Cup, breaking the record of Annika Sörenstam in September 2011, when she won a Saturday four-ball match partnered with Melissa Reid. 

In 1994 she was the first golfer, male or female, to win on five different golf tours in one calendar year, US, Europe, Asia, Japan and Australia, and became the first European player to be ranked unofficial number one in the world. She was named the Sports Journalists’ Association Sportswoman of the Year 1995 and 1996 .

In 2004 Davies was the first woman to compete in the men’s European Tour, entering the ANZ Championship in Sydney, Australia, but failed to make the cut and finished second to last.

Davies was the first woman to compete in a European Senior Tour event, when she appeared in the 2018 Shipco Masters in Denmark, playing from the same tees as her male opponents.

Davies was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire [MBE] in 1988, Commander of the Order of the British Empire [CBE] in 2000, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire [DBE] in the 2014 list of Birthday Honours, all for services to golf.

In February 2015, Davies was announced as one of the first female members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

Davies enjoys all sports, an ardent football fan, and avid supporter of Liverpool FC.

Having formerly been a bookmaker’s assistant, Laura has always had an interest in gambling, which eventually led to her becoming a racehorse owner.

In 2006 Davies completed a 56-mile charity walk along the Great Wall of China to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In 1997, 33-year-old Davies signed a four-year contract worth $1 as part of a publicity stunt for newly established American soccer team Myrtle Beach Seadawgs in the USISL D-3 Pro League. She played in one league game for the club, a six-minute cameo in a 4-1 loss against New Jersey Imperials in April 1997, in which the future US national soccer international Tim Howard made his away debut. Howard wrote in his book that the Seadawgs had offered a bonus of $500 to any player who could assist Davies score a goal.

28 July, 2019