In the world of sport names of sportsmen throng to the memory: Squadron Commander Bromet, our quarter-miler; Jack Black, Peachey, and Brownridge our 100 yards and 220 yards men; Jock avidson our wonder for the mile; and our dogged Cockney driver Lynn - a sticker on long cross-country work. In soccer football we had a team which always rendered a good account of itself:-
Goalies. - Doc Leigh (the Sick Berth Attendant) and Brownridge (TransPort).
Backs. - Frank Randall (a Chippy), Petty Officer Green.
Half-Backs. - Squad. Commander Draper, the giant Myddleton (Armourer), the Old Hambone (Transport).
Forwards. - Squad. Commander Bromet (Centre), Jock Ritchie, Taylor, Clifford Crewe, P.O. Bebbington, Rooke and Needham.
We played as many as five football matches in three days. We tackled all types of Army teams and were only once badly outplayed, and that was at Mont St. Eloi by the Canadian Black Watch - a team of hefty Canadian-Scottish giants. We played football at all times of the year even on a hot July afternoon, and we played it among shell holes and on fields of thick stubble.
Cricket was also indulged in, and among the lower deck ratings Bowry of the Transport was the acknowledged stylist. One match was played on some rough ground in the Canadian Camp along the road to Neuville St. Vaast with shrapnel and high-explosive shells bursting around the observation balloons close at hand. The cricketers, in white flannels on a shattered landscape, amid such surroundings made a strange and unforgettable picture. It was only during the Mont St. Eloi days, however, that we had a real series of cricket matches, though subsequently at Tramecourt I remember trying to arrange a match on the aerodrome between officers and the lower deck. The officer to whom I suggested the match was a certain Lieut. F. S. G. Calthorpe, our Armoury Officer at that time, We walked out on to the ’drome – which was a field of stubble. I pointed out the only spot I thought possible and Lieut. Calthorpe ejaculated “My God!" turned on his heels and made for cover. It was not until afterwards that I learned he was the Hon. F. S. G. Calthorpe, the well-known county cricketer - and I did not then wonder at his horror at being asked to play on such a wicket.
For our athletes old Ted Evans of the Transport (an old time boxer and sport) acted as trainer - rigged himself up an old hut and gave up his evenings to the massaging and rubbing-down of the runners who were practising
