The Real James Herriot by Jim Wight Read Free Book Online Page A

reputation on the playing fields of Scotland. Cricket, athletics and tennis were Alf’s favourites and in the 1931–2 year he won an athletics medal, coming second in the Inter-scholastics Sports. His main achievement was inthe long jump – known as the broad jump in those days – where he produced a jump of over nineteen feet.
    Alf was keen on athletics but the sport at which he really excelled was tennis. In his final year at Hillhead he reached the tennis final only to be narrowly defeated, but he was not discouraged. He had joined Yoker Tennis Club and reached the club’s final the following year, only to be beaten once again. However, being beaten in two successive finals did not deter him. He continued to play tennis regularly throughout his remaining years in Glasgow, winning many matches in the West of Scotland Tennis Championships, and when he finally moved to Yorkshire, he played competitive tennis until well into his thirties. His hours of playing when a young man in Glasgow resulted in his becoming a highly proficient performer.
    Both the playing of and the following of sport figured prominently in Alf’s schooldays, with his boyhood diaries full of references to it. The England cricket team and the fortunes of Hillhead on the rugby field are frequently mentioned but most of the space is allocated to Sunderland Football Club. Despite the fact that his team was 150 miles away, his allegiance to the Red and Whites never faltered. During his years in Glasgow, he watched Rangers and Celtic many times – and he supported Motherwell in the Scottish League – but the fanaticism of his father ensured that it was the team from the town of his birth that remained closest to his heart.
    His feelings are exposed on many of the pages, where he wrote quite eloquently of the old team, as on 28 September 1933: ‘Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! What a day! Why weren’t these spaces made bigger? Sunderland have defeated Aston Villa by three goals to nothing at Villa Park. Sunderland have never won the cup, despite their magnificent league performances but is this their year? You bet it is! Much as I am tempted to wax poetic about this great event, I’m afraid that, in accordance with the requirements of this volume, I must recount my own doings.’ On a more sombre note, he wrote: ‘Eheu! I am plunged into the very depths of despondency. Life, to me, is dark and gloomy and the future looms up forbidding and hopeless. Sunderland have been defeated by Derby County at Roker Park.’ How passionately he followed the fortunes of the team that was to provide him with a lifetime of both joy and despair.
    The diary of 1933 is notable for Alf’s positive approach towards looking after his health. He repeatedly commented on how well he was feeling,the reason for this being that the previous year had been a very bad one for him. He had almost died of diphtheria. This disease, caused by a virulent germ, is rarely seen today. It was virtually eliminated in 1946 as a result of the discovery of a vaccine but at the beginning of his final year at Hillhead, Alf contracted the disease – and it very nearly finished him off. In those days, prior to the discovery of antibiotics, he had to fight the disease simply through sheer determination coupled with good nursing from his parents. The standard symptoms were a sore throat and searing headaches, the throat becoming coated in an unpleasant ‘cheesy’ exudate which made breathing very difficult. In addition, he developed a series of painful abscesses all over his body, and these continued to be a problem for two years after his recovery from the disease. He recalled one particularly gruesome boil at the top of his leg that eventually became as hard as a rock. One evening, having decided that he had had enough of it, he squeezed it with all his might. In his own words, ‘A thing like a small cricket ball shot out of my leg and bounced its way across the floor!’ It sounds more like something