The cricket star who learned to fly

学会飞行的板球明星

Lives Less Ordinary

社会与文化

2024-12-23

45 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Ricky Ellcock’s rollercoaster life as a fast bowler and airline pilot Barbados-born Ricky Ellcock had twin ambitions as a boy – to become a cricketer and fly airplanes. His father was, like Ricky, cricket-mad – but on the question of him becoming a pilot his answer was emphatic: black people don’t fly planes. Ricky’s talents as a fast bowler won him many plaudits and a scholarship to come to England. Before long he was playing at the top of the sport, but the stresses on his body meant he kept breaking down. When those injuries threatened to end his career completely, Ricky looked to disprove his dad and make history in the skies. Ricky's autobiography is called Balls to Fly. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Edgar Maddicott Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 (Photo: Ricky in action for Middlesex. Credit: Middlesex CCC)
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

  • Do you ever find yourself missing out on episodes of your favorite podcast because you didn't know a new one's out?

  • Well, here's an easy way to get new episodes automatically.

  • Whether it's World of Secrets or any of your other favorite BBC World Service podcasts, just find the show on your podcast app and click Follow or Subscribe.

  • And if you switch on notifications, you'll get a reminder too.

  • It's that easy.

  • Follow or subscribe and never miss an episode.

  • Suddenly I lost all coordination on the right side of my body.

  • So I'm sitting in a cubicle thinking, what in God's earth is going on?

  • And eventually they said, we don't want you to move because you're very lucky you're not dead already.

  • Today, a tale of a man born to fly, but who found himself floored on on more than one occasion.

  • From the BBC World Service, I'm Asya Fuchs and this is Lives Less Ordinary.

  • Ricky Elcock started life in Barbados, but he'd whiz around the world many times over as a fast bowler on a cricket field and later as an airplane pilot.

  • After his first dream career was cut short, just as it was reaching its peak, he'd make history and in another Ricky came into the studio to talk with me about his time in the sun and where else to begin but Barbados.

  • As you can imagine, it was bright sunny.

  • We spent a lot of time outside very, very poor village.

  • We grew up in a two room wooden house with my mom and my dad and my sister in a baby cot that lived in one room.

  • So my brother and myself slept in a bed in the second room.

  • But this is a house that had no kitchen, it didn't have running water, we didn't have a toilet, and my mum cooked in the back garden.

  • You know, that's how we lived.