On the 17 July, 1893, Arthur Shrewsbury (1856-1903), the English cricketer and rugby football administrator, was the first cricketer to pass 1,000 runs in Test Cricket, when he reached 7 during his innings of 106 at Lord’s in 1893.

His career total of 1,277 runs was a record until January 1902.  Shrewsbury held the record for over 15 years, before it was overtaken by Joe Darling, only Clem Hill and Wally Hammnd have held the record for longer.

On 12 May 1873, having just turned 17, Shrewsbury made his first appearance at Lord’s for the Colts of England against the Marylebone Cricket Club [MCC]. His batting was modeled on that of the fomer Nottinghamshire captain Richard Daft.

Shrewsbury was the seventh child of William Shrewsbury and Mary Ann Wragg, was born in New Lenton, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at the People’s College, Nottingham and trained as a draughtsman.

Shrewsbury played his cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and played 23 Test matches for England, serving as its captain in 7 Tests, with a record of won 5, lost 2. He was the last professional to be England captain until Len Hutton was chosen in 1952.

Shrewsbury topped the first-class batting averages seven times including in 1902, his final season.

The following spring of 1903, Shrewsbury complained of kidney pains during a match for Lenton United on 27 September, and during the winter he consulted various doctors and specialists, who could discover nothing seriously wrong with him. During the spring his health started to improve, but it was unlikely that he would play county cricket in 1903.

In May 1903 Shrewsbury bought a revolver from a local gunsmith. He returned a week later after having difficulty in loading the gun. The clerk found that Shrewsbury had the wrong bullets and supplied him with the correct ones. Shrewsbury went to his bedroom that evening and shot himself first in the chest and then, when that did not prove fatal, in the head. His girlfriend, Gertrude Scott, found him bleeding from a head wound and by the time a doctor arrived Shrewsbury was dead. At the inquest, held the following day, the coroner decided that Shrewsbury had committed suicide, his mind having been unhinged by the belief that he had an incurable disease. The coroner added that there was, however, no evidence to show Shrewsbury was suffering from any form of major illness.

Shrewsbury’s funeral took place two days after his death at the All Hallows Church, Gedling.

17 July, 2019

On the 16 July 1995, the Argentinean racing car driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, died of kidney failure. Nicknamed El Chueco, the ‘bowlegged one’, he dominated the first decade of Formula One racing, winning the World Drivers’ Championship five times, a record which stood for 47 years until beaten by Michael Schumacher.

Regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, Fangio is the only Argentinean driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, having won it four times in his career.

After his retirement, Fangio presided as the honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of his museum, until his death in 1995.

Fangio’s grandfather, Giuseppe Fangio, emigrated to Buenos Aires from Italy in 1887. The fourth of six children, Fangio was born in Balcarce on San Juan’s Day in 1911. 

After finishing military service, Fangio opened his own garage and raced in local events.

Unlike later Formula One drivers, started his racing career at a mature age and was the oldest driver in many of his races.

Fangio’s first entry into Grand Prix racing came in the Grand prix de l’ACF at Reims , where he started his Simca Gordini from 11th on the grid but retired.

In 1956 Fangio moved to Ferrari to win his fourth title. Enzo Ferrari and Fangio did not have a very warm relationship, despite their shared success with the Lancia-Ferrari car that was difficult to drive. Fangio took over his teammate’s cars after he suffered mechanical problems in three races, the Argentine, Monaco and Italian Grands Prix. In each case the points were shared between the two drivers. At the season-ending Italian Grand Prix, Fangio’s Ferrari teammate Peter Collins, who was in a position to win the World Championship with just 15 laps to go, handed over his car to Fangio. They shared the six points won for second place, giving Fangio the World title.

The Batista Dictatorship of Cuba established the non-Formula One Cuban Grand Prix in 1957. Fangio won the 1957 event, and had set fastest times during practice for the 1958 race.

On 23 February 1958, two unmasked gunmen kidnapped Fangio at gunpoint. The motive was simple: By capturing the biggest name in motor-sport the rebels were showing up the government and attracting worldwide publicity to their cause. Fangio was taken to three separate houses. His captors allowed him to listen to the race via radio, bringing a television for him to witness reports of a disastrous crash after the race concluded. In the third house, Fangio was allowed his own bedroom but became convinced that a guard was standing outside of the bedroom door at all hours.

After retiring from racing Fangio sold Mercedes-Benz cars, often driving his former racing cars in demonstration laps. He was appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1974, and its Honorary President for Life in 1987.

Fangio was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Juan Manuel Fangio died in Buenos Aires in 1995, at the age of 84 from kidney failure and pneumonia; he was buried in his home town of Balcarce.

Fangio was never married, but was involved in a romantic relationship with Andrea Berruet whom he broke up with in 1960. They had a son named Oscar Cacho Espinosa who was acknowledged as the unrecognised son of Fangio in 2000. In July 2015, an Argentinian court ruling ordered exhumation of Fangio’s body after Espinosa’s claims to be the unacknowledged son of the former race car driver.

16 July, 2019

On the 15 July, 1938, English cricketer Arthur Edward Fagg (1915-1977), set a first-class world record playing for Kent, when he scored 244 in the first innings and an undefeated 202 in the second innings, in a drawn match against Essex at Colchester, to become the first batsman in first-class cricket history to score double centuries in both innings of a match.

This feat was not equaled until 2019, when it was achieved in Sri Lankan domestic cricket by Angelp Perera.

A right-handed opening batsman Fagg first played for Kent at the age of 17. An England Test player at 21, he made his debut against India in 1936, and in all played a total of 5 Tests, but caught rhuematic fever on the tour of Australia the following winter, and missed the whole of the 1937 season.

Fagg’s final Test, was against the West Indies in 1939, although he remained a consistent scorer in county cricket until the mid-1950s. In all, he scored 58 centuries and more than 25,000 runs.

After retirement, he became a cricket umpire, officiating in eighteen Test matches and seven One Day Internationals. In an incident at Edgbaston in 1973, he refused to take the field after the West Indies team disputed one of his decisions.

Born in Chartham in Kent, Fagg died in Tunbridge Wells, aged 62.

15 July, 2019

On the 14 July, 1917, the French professional road racing and track cyclist , Octave Lapize (1887-1917) died aged 29. Lapize was most famous for winning the 1910 Tour de France and a bronze medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the men’s 100 kilometres, he was a three-time winner of the one-day classics, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Brussels.

In the Tour De France in 1910 he went head-to-head with Alcyon  teammate Francois Faber who led comfortably until colliding with a dog at the foot of the Pyrenese. Lapize finally won by just 4 points helped by a number of punctures to Faber’s bike on the final stage from Caen to Paris. 

In a total of six starts in the Tour De France between 1909 and 1914, his victory was the only one he finished.

The  Fiirst World War ended his cycling career. As a fighter pilot in the French army, Octave Lapize was shot down near Flirey, Meurthe-et-Moselle on the 14 July 1917. Severely injured, he died in a hospital in Toul. 

On the 14 July, 1964,  the French rod racing cyclis Jacques Anquetil (1934-1987) was the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, from 1961 to 1964.

The son of a builder in Mont-Saint-Aignan, north-west France,  before the 1961 Tour he said that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, and he did it. His victories in stage races such as the Tour were built on his exceptional ability to ride against the clock, in which earned him the name ‘Monsieur Chrono’.

In 1957 Anquetil won his first Tour de France, when the Tour was still ridden by national rather than commercial teams.

14 July, 2019

On the 13 July 1967, one of Britain’s most successful professional cyclists, Thomas Simpson (1937-1967), died.

Born in Haswell, County Durham, he was the youngest of six children of a coal miner.  Later the family moved to Harworth in Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road racing as a teenager before taking up track cycling,  specialising in pursuit races.

He won a bronze medal for track cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games,

In 1959, at the age of 21, Simpson was signed by the French professional road-racing team Saint- Raphaël – R. Geminiani-Dunlop. He advanced to their first team, Rapha-Gitane-Dunlop the following year, and won the 1961 Tour of Flanders. Simpson then joined Gitane-Leroux-Dunlop-R Geminiani.

In the 1962 Tour de France he became the first British rider to wear the yellow jersey, finishing sixth overall.

In 1963 Simpson moved to Peugeot-BP-Englebert, winning Bordeaux-Paris that year and the 1964 Milan-San Remo.

In 1965 he became Britain’s first world road race championand won the Giro di Lombardia, and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first cyclist to win the award.

Injuries hampered much of Simpson’s 1966 season, and in the thirteenth stage of the 1967 Tour de France , Simpson collapsed and died during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. He was 29 years old. He won two stages of the 1967 Veulta a España before he won the general classification of Paris-Nice that year.

Simpson was known to have taken performance-enhancing drugs during his career, when no doping controls existed. The post-mortem examination found that he had mixed amphetamines and alcohol, this diuretic combination when combined with the heat ,and the hard climb of the Ventoux and a stomach complaint would prove fatal.

A memorial near where he died has become a place of pilgimage for many cyclists. He is held in high esteem by many cyclists for his character and will to win.

13 July, 2019

On the12 July, 1932 the Yorkshire slow left-armer, Hedley Verity, took 10 wickets for 10 runs against Nottinghamshire at Headingley, Leeds. Yorkshire skittled the visitors or a meagre 67 in their second innings, to win by 10 wickets.

The first-class cricket record for the fewest runs conceded while taking all 10 wickets still stands to this day.

Verity had warmed up for the record the year before, taking 10 for 38 in an innings against Warwickshire at Headingley.

Born in Headingly, Leeds, Hedley Verity (1905-1943), was a professional cricketer who always wanted to play for Yorkshire, who played for the White Rose county and England between 1930 and 1939.

In his nine full seasons in English first-class cricket, Verity took 1,956 wickets at an average of 14.90, and a further 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37.

After establishing a reputation in local cricket, he signed a professional contract playing in the Lancashire League. His first season was not a success.. Initially a medium paced bowler, he switched to spin and began to make a name for himself.  Verity had a successful trial for Yorkshire in 1930, and led the national bowling averages.

In 1931, he was selected to play for England and rose to prominence during a tour to Australia in 1932–33. He achieved the best performance of his Test career when he took 15 wickets against Australia in a Test match at Lord’s in 1934.

Verity continued to play for Yorkshire and England until 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War ended his career.

Named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932.

 Verity joined the Green Howards in 1939, and was posted overseas to India, Persia and Egypt, achieving the rank of Captain. During the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Verity was severely wounded and captured by the Germans. He was taken to the Italian mainland, he died in Caserta from his injuries in 1943 aged 38 and was buried there.

12 July, 2019

On the 11 July 1988 the media was buzzing with news of a budding relationship between two eccentrics. One was declared ‘the baddest man on the planet’, the other is now dubbed as ‘the most ridiculed President ever’. You’ve probably guessed they were boxing legend Mike Tyson and US President Donald Trump.

Mike Tyson hired Donald Trump as his chief strategist and adviser. The partnership was set up within hours of Mike Tyson’s 91-second knockout win over the undefeated heavyweight Michael Spinks in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Donald Trump reportedly spent $ 11 million organising the fight, to promote his Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, announcing, ‘This is the greatest live gate in the history of professional sports.’ The fight attracted more than 21,000 spectators, who paid more than $ 12 million to watch the bout. It is said Trump earned another $ 15 million that night from gambling revenue at the Trump Plaza Casino.

The partnership was confirmed in a 1988 report published in the New York Times, which quoted the real estate tycoon Trump as saying, ‘Mike Tyson has asked me and I have agreed, to serve jointly, with regard to future decisions about Mike Tyson’s career’. Trump was hired for a substantial fee which was not disclosed.

A long list of issues soon brought the Tyson-Trump pairing to an end, including an alleged affair between the future US President and the boxer’s wife Robin Givens.

11 July. 2019

On the 10 July 1953, in his only Open Championship appearance, Ben Hogan won the 82nd Open Championship at the Carnoustie Golf Links, Angus, Scotland, by four strokes over four runners-up, Antonio Cerda, Dai Rees, Frank Stranahan, and Peter Thomson, to win his third major championship of the year.

In the final round, the American amateur Frank Stranahan was out first and posted a 69 for a total 286 total, including an eagle at the last. De Vicenzo hit his ball out of bounds at the 9th and finished on 287. Hogan chipped-in for birdie at the 5th, then followed up with another birdie at 6. He opened up a two-shot lead at the 13th, and made another birdie at 18. Battling the flu, he finished with a round of 68 to better the record the Arbentinian, Antonio Cerdá, had set that morning. Hogans final six-under par score of 282 was four shots clear of the field.^[

The total prize money was increased by nearly fifty percent, from £1,700 to £2,500, with the winner pocketing £500, £300 for second, £200 for third, £100 for fourth, £75 for fifth, £30 for next 20, and then £25 each for the remaining players.

The number of qualifiers was limited at 100, and ties for 100th place did not qualify, consequently only 91 players made the first day of play. Hogan qualified comfortably on 145.

Hogan, with the Masters and US Open titles, already under his belt, made the trip across the Atlantic, arriving in Carnoustie two weeks early to practice with the smaller British golf ball.

The policy of requiring all players to qualify, the small purse, the conflict with the US PGA Championship, and  the lengthy ocean voyage, kept most Americans at home, and only four qualified for the first round, three were included in the 49 players who made the 36 hole cut .

Although the field of 91 that qualified was mostly British, a strong international contingent stood ready to challenge Hogan, including fellow Americans Lloyd Mangrum and the amateur Frank Stranaham, Peter Thomson of Australia, Antonio Cerda and Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina, and the defending champion, Bobby Locke of South Africa.

The Open Championship was Hogan’s third major title of the year. but the modern Grand Slam was not possible, as the PGA Championship conflicted with the Open in 1953.

After his automobile accident in 1949, Hogan did not enter the PGA Championship until 1960, after it became a stroke play event. He had won the PGA Championship in 1946 and 1948 before his accident.

Hogan made a lasting impression on Carnoustie, the par-5 6th hole features a split fairway, with the right side being safer but the left offering a better angle to the green. Hogan found the narrow left side on the par 5 sixth hole in each of the four rounds, which is now known as ‘Hogan’s Alley’, Hogan remains the only player to win the Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship in the same calendar year.

10 July, 2019

On the 9 July, 1877, the first Wimbledon Championship was held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London. Later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament. and the world’s first official lawn tennis tournament.

The All England Croquet Club in July 1868, by six gentlemen at the offices of The Field, a weekly country and sports magazine. Lawn tennis introduced in 1875, to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. Its first set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club. 

 The Gentlemen’s Singles competition, the only event of the championship, was contested on grass courts by 22 players who each paid one guinea to participate.

The tournament began on 9 July 1877. The final, which was delayed for three days by rain, was played on ten day later in front of a crowd of about 200 people who each paid an entry fee of one shilling. 

The winner received 12 guineas in prize money and a silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas, donated by the sports magazine The Field.

Spencer Gore , a 27-year-old racquets player from Wandsworth, who also played cricket for Surrey, became the first Wimbledon champion, defeating William Marshall, a 28-year-old real-tennis player, in three straight sets in a final that lasted 48 minutes.

The tournament made a profit of £10 and the pony roller remained in use.

9 July, 2019

On the 8 July 1973, professional cricketer, Wilfred Rhodes (1877-1973)  , died in Poole, Dorset, aged 95.

Rhodes played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930, taking 127 wickets and scoring 2,325 runs. He became the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches, and holds the world record for the most appearances made in first-class cricket, 1,110 matches, and also for the most wickets taken, 4,204. He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season a record 16 times.

Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties, and in his final Test in 1930, at 52 years and 165 days, was the oldest player to have appeared in a Test match.

Born in Kirkheaton, Yorkshire in 1877, he began his career for Yorkshire in 1898 as a slow left-arm bowler, and quickly established a reputation as one of the best slow bowlers in the world. By the time of the First World War he had developed his batting skills and was regarded as one of the leading batsmen in England, establishing an effective opening partnership with Jack Hobbs. 

His first appearance for England was in 1899 and he played regularly in Tests until 1921, and was recalled to the team in the final Ashes Test of 1926 aged 48, when England regained the Ashes for the first time since 1912.

Following his retirement from playing cricket, he coached for a short while at Harrow School, but was not a great success.

His eyesight began to fail around 1939, and he was completely blind by 1952.

He was given honorary membership of the  MCC in 1949 and remained a respected figure within the game until his death.

Rhodes was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009

8 July, 2019