Leaping To Fame

Press, Volume C, Issue 29712, 4 January 1962, Page 7

Leaping To Fame

Spring jumping—jumping from a standing start—was very popular in the English Midlands towards the end of last century, and a virtuoso of this somewhat eccentric sport was Joe Derby, record spring-jumper of England, who was born 100 years ago and kept his fame until his death in 1937.

In a recent edition of "The Onlooker” programme broadcast weekly in the 8.8. C. General Overseas Service, James Arnott recalled some of the spectacular feats Joe achieved through muscular control and rigid training. “For instance, he would jump off a chair right on to the face of one of his three children and straight off again with no harm at all done. He could jump forward 14ft Sin and backwards for 12ft Ilin.

“He rigged up several tricks based on bricks. He could jump from a pedestal over a chair on to a brick and then go straight up and over a sft 6in bar, without knocking over the brick, and he would jump off a brick over seven or 10 chairs in a row. But if he really felt like letting loose, he would go over 20 chairs placed lift apart, in 20 successive jumps, and on the twentyfirst jump he went over a hbrse sft tall. His best trick was the jump on to the surface of a tank of water and off again, and to prove that he had actually touched the water, you could see that the soles of his feet were wet”