SPORTING MEMOIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 109, 4 November 1910, Page 2

SPORTING MEMOIRS.

SIR CLAUDE CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY. A REAL JOHN BULL. fFXiOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, 19th September. One does not always appreciate the autobiographical way of hearing anecdotes of a sportsman's life, but there is nothing at all boastful or objectionable in the way in which Sk Claude Champion de Crespigny tells his life-story, in so far as it consists of sporting , adventures and triumphs. He has triumphed in no uncertain way in steeplechasing. flat-racing, balloon- 1 ing, canoeing, sculling, swimming, walking, boxing, shooting big and small j game, hunting, and falconry, and for most of them he is still fit and willing at the age of 64. As a boy Sir Charles served in the Britannia with Lord Charles Beresford, aud then he was appointed to the first British ironclad, the Warrior. t t? 1 ' k ad an intel ' estin g experience ° f . otocKado running in the American Uvil War. On one occasion a small runner was creeping in the darkness towards Charleston Harbour, when one of the blockaders on the starboard bow, suspecting mischief, showed a* red light, and the runner "popped a shot into 'her. At the same time a blockader on the port bow showed a blue light and slip treated that in the same style, and then steamed between the two blockaders. leaving them firing at each othev." Another blockade runner burnt damp straw for some hours to deceive tta watching cruiser, which had, of course, to get up steam in readiness for a 1 dasiv When the cruiser's coal was almost :3nlshed the runner got up steam and Uipped away. BOBBING UP AGAIN. Some years later, Sir Charles, who had now left the Navy, put in an appearance on the deck of the Sultan, of whicn Lord Charles Baresford was now an officer. "What are you doing here?" exclaimed Lord Charles. "I thought you had left the Navy for good." "I told him." says Sir Claude, "I had joined the Sultan in the capacity of chaplain and naval instructor. 'Good Lord,' exclaimed Charlie, who is always ready with a reply, 'why didn't you join -as ship's cook? You'd, at any rate, have got more to eat in that way. '*■ Once upon a time on paraue a celebrated duke called Culonel Oakes, a distinguished cavalry commander, a fool. Ho afterwards withdrew the words with complete generosity. , "Oh," replied Oakes, "I don't mind, sir, your calling me a damned fool ; only I don't like oeing called a damned fool before all those other damned foolb," and he pointed to the staff". A LIFE OF ADVENTURE. Leaving the Army in turn, Sir Claude served with the' Germans against the French, and in that campaign developed his taste for the then scarcely known art of ballooning. He then served in the artillery militia. .He voyaged from Folkestone to Boulogne in an open boat in a gale of wind ; won the Royal Humane Society's medal for one of several rescues; served as a volunteer in Egypt, in East Africa, and the Boer War. In the last campaign Lady de ' Crespigny also served as a nurse, and their sons were fighting. Sir Claude was the first to cross the North Sea in a balloon, and he is to-day seriously asking himself whether the danger of aeroplaning is 'sufficient to attract him. While in Havana, he had some experience of bullfighting. "There was a demand for picadors, as a good many men employed in that capacity had recently suffered severely and tallen out of the ranks. Regarding this as a good opportunity to 'cut in,' I offered my services as picador. But the bull-fighters, if jealous of each otheV, were even more so of a stranger and outsider; They traded on their reputation of being the only people who could face the bull, and they would no doubt have lost prestige if an outsider had been allowed to act as picador and had been at all successful in that capacity. Accordingly they would not hear of my taking any part in the fight, and I was obliged to go away unsatisfied." THE STEEPLECHASER. , Sir Claude's reputation in England was founded, however, chiefly on his success as a steeplechase rider. In the early days of his experience "to ride over heavy ploughed land was quite the rule rather than the exception, and the jumps were often of the ruclest character. It is when I contrast this state of things with existing conditions that I feel inclined to \ise the expression kid-glove style in reference to steeplechasing at the present timei" In one race Sir Claude's horse fell, and he was rendered unconscious by a kick from the follower. Four clays later he was rolling his cricket ground ; he followed this up with a Turkish bath, and the next day, though still in bandages, was able to ride two horses at Hurst Park. When he rode Brown Tommy to. victory in the Gelleywood Steepiectiasethe Derby digger had made the stiff day so sticky that they had to pull up at t 1 n N hill and trot. The three leading horses were rolling from distress.