by Arunabha Sengupta
He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Twice. On the second occasion, he carried his companion all the way down because he had broken his leg.
He swam naked across Loch Lomond.
Within the span of a single month during the Second World War he had six tanks blasted from under him in Greece and North Africa , nearly dying from shrapnel in the skull, but continued to fight.
It was during the War that he supposedly discovered the enormous talent of Keith Miller.
He farmed minks in Suffolk. He wrote several books, two acclaimed ones on War. He became a journalist and broadcasted cricket.
He was also supposedly an ‘ultra-prolific fornicator’. (Godfrey Evans said he was the first man to score a 100 on tour)
Bob Crisp also found time to play 62 first-class matches as a fast bowler, capturing 276 wickets at 19.88, the only bowler to take four wickets in four balls twice. The nine Tests matches saw returns of an unremarkable 20 wickets at 37.35, but who cares? He was the most extraordinary man to play Test cricket. And he did take a Test five-for that included Wally Hammond bowled.
Of course his sporting adventures were not limited to cricket. He also played rugby for Mashonaland, was a top-class swimmer and also excelled at sprints, long jump, high jump, hurdles and boxing.
He was also one of the few White South Africans of his time to play alongside and against non-White men. Recruited by the eccentric millionaire Julian Cahn, Crisp and compatriot Denijs Morkel toured and played in Ceylon and Malaya.
In the 1950s he started the Drum, a Johannesburg magazine for Black readers with a major cricketing connection. He had dreams of selling his magazine across the continent, but the dreams were too skewed to come off. Though no apartheid proponent, Crisp’s romantic aspirations were at the other end of the spectrum—imbued with the idea of the noble savage. His idea of a great copy was a series called Know Yourselves, a history of the various tribes. There would be articles on tribal music, features on religion, farming and famous men, and cartoon strips about Gulliver and St Paul. He even serialised Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country.
Soon, however, the finances were taken over by Jim Bailey, the son of the great Randlord and cricket-financier Abe Bailey. Bailey knew Drum needed: “Hot dames, jazz, pin-ups, sport.” A group of charismatic young Black reporters joined—Henry Nxumalo, Todd Matshikiza, Arthur Maimane, Can Themba, Casey Motisi, and others. Crisp had to go.
Growing tired of it all, Crisp hitch hiked through Yugoslavia before settling down in a hut in Greece. No running water, no lavatory, but always a woman in his bed.
Following that was a nearly fatal solo boat trip around Corfu. Crisp survived.
As the first year of his new life came to a close, he discovered that the stomach pain he had been suffering from was not due to too much Greek wine. It was cancer.
With a medical prediction of only one year to live, Crisp set off on a trek around Crete. His only companion was a donkey ‘with plenty of personality’. His account of his travels, originally serialised in the Sunday Express, and later published in book form Zen and the Art of Donkey Maintenance.
Crisp survived again. Both the adventure and cancer.
It was decades later when he finally passed away, at the age of 83, peacefully in his sleep, with a copy of Sporting Life on his lap, having placed a £20 bet on a horse that did not come off.
Bob Crisp was born on 28 May 1911.