10 Welsh Sporting Greats

Because of Geraint Thomas lots of people are doing this sort of thing.

Midweek Meeting April 6 2016

National Museum of Denmark, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, we were a very select number last night - only four of us (and all but one of those were Bradys). It so happens that all the other church officers are away at present and even some who might have been there were ill or otherwise engaged. I cannot complain as I was away last week on holiday and hope to be at the Banner Conference next week. I pressed on with 2 Timothy, talking about the Christian as an athlete. As there were only four of us we prayed in turn rather than waiting on each other.

Ron Clarke

I don't follow athletics but I saw today that the Australian distance runner Ron Clarke has died. The name actually meant something to me. I was surprised to learn that despite breaking many world records he never won a gold medal. There is this great story though (some of the detail here may be incorrect but the basics are apparently right).

In June 1966, Clarke was invited to an athletic meeting in Prague by Emil Zatopek, the great Czech distance runner of the 1950s. Zatopek was to distance runners what Sir Edmund Hillary was to mountaineering - the first man through the barriers for all the others to follow - and he had long been an admirer of Clarke's style. After the meeting, the four-time Olympic gold medallist and national hero, guided the young Australian around Prague for the day, showing him fine hospitality throughout, talking about this and that, and the art of running in particular. That afternoon, he took Clarke to the airport, took him past the guards, right up the steps of the plane, before warmly shaking his hand and pressing a tiny package into his palm and whispering a few words. What ...?

Zatopek was gone. The plane door closed on him and Clarke was more than passing nervous. What on earth had Zatopek just given him? Was it drugs? Was it contraband? Was it some sort of message or something he had to take to the free world? Microfilm maybe? Clarke sat in his seat, perspiring a little. He determined that under no circumstances would he open the small package until he was back on the ground in London, at least on friendly, familiar territory, where he would be able to cope with whatever it was. But somewhere over the English Channel he could resist no longer. Looking surreptitiously over his left and right shoulder to see no one was watching, he fished the package out of his pocket and opened the little box inside. It gleamed back at him. It was an Olympic gold medal, the very same that Zatopek had won in the 10,000m at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. It was even newly inscribed, To Ron Clarke, July 19, 1966, with Zatopek's final words on the plane steps coming to him, "Not out of friendship, but because you deserve it".

Great story, eh?

Midweek Meeting May 6 2015

We were a very good number once again last night (about 15) as we ploughed on through Philippians 3, looking this time at verses 10-16. Once again I was struck very much by Paul's total commitment to Christ and the highly positive yet realistic way he sees the Christian life. It is so easy to come adrift but with passages like this one in the Bible there is no reason to do so. We again had an excellent time of prayer, with a good balance of requests and thanksgivings. It is always good to be with God's people, especially to pray. We prayed about the election, of course, but lots of other things big and small too.

Unbroken Review

A shorter version of this review also appears in the February ET

Many readers will be aware of the book War and grace by Don Stephens, a collection of short biographies of Christians from the two world wars, that was published in 2005 and again, in a new edition, last year.

The first story in that book concerns an American of Italian extraction called Louis Zamperini. The new edition reveals that he died on July 2, 2014 and mentions the 2010 biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and the then forthcoming film of the same name, directed by Angelina Jolie. This film has now appeared, going on general release in British cinemas on Boxing Day, 2014.

We are always looking for ways to introduce Christ to our unbelieving neighbours and so the fact that a biopic about a Christian has appeared is good news. Sadly, the film, unlike the book that it is drawn from, chooses very much to downplay the fact that Zamperini became a Christian after the war and spent much of his life talking about Christ and the forgiveness that can be found only in him.

In his book, Don Stephens prefaces his life of Zamperini with seven summarising bullet points. The first five of these are well covered in the film.

The three middle points are covered the most extensively – An Air force bomb aimer, decorated for gallantry in action; a survivor of 47 days adrift on a life raft; an ill-treated prisoner of war of the Japanese for two and a half years. The bulk of the film looks at these periods, most of the time being devoted to his harrowing years as a POW when a man known as 'The bird' did all that he possibly could to 'break' his prisoner. Much of this, which includes a great deal of senseless violence, does not make pleasant viewing. Hence the '15' certificate. If you do see this film, be prepared for that. Zamperini had recurring nightmares after his experiences, until he came to Christ. One can imagine some people having nightmares after watching this presentation.

The first two bullet points (a juvenile delinquent in California and an Olympic runner at the Berlin Games of 1936) are covered in the film by means of flashbacks that bring out his Italian background, the racism he suffered, his delinquency and the way his older brother eventually steered him in a better direction by means of sport, leading to some success at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

As for Stephens' final two bullet points – a drunkard who almost wrecked his marriage and a Christian – these are almost entirely ignored. The main film ends when the war ends and just a few subsequent points are covered in a brief epilogue, where written material is combined with contemporary stills to fill in the rest of the story.

All this means that the only real Christian elements in the film itself are a snatch from a sermon by a Roman clergyman when Zamperini was a boy (blurring the fact that he later rejected Catholicism for the gospel), his prayer in the life raft that he would dedicate his life to God if he survived and some conversations about God with his fellow survivor Russell Phillips.

It is hard to understand why the film makers were not keener to depict the moment when Zamperini returned to Japan after the war in 1950 and, having preached to his former guards, warmly shook them by the hand and expressed his forgiveness. They chose not to do it this way, however.

That still leaves us with an opportunity to take advantage of the brief spotlight on Zamperini to draw attention to him and his Saviour by means of Don Stephens' book or other materials that do highlight his conversion and Christian life.

One other point to make, if it is not too esoteric, is that if you watch the film carefully you will notice that sometimes Zamperini is framed in an iconically Christ-like way. Further, near the end we see him symbolically crucified, symbolically dead, symbolically raised and this is followed by a symbolic pouring out of the Spirit and a mass baptism. Some have also detected his representative character, his temptation by Satan and his final ascension too. These elements may be helpful or unhelpful in the long run but are worth keeping in mind.

10 Great Welsh Olympic Athletes

1 Colin Jackson 110m hurdles –  1988 2nd, 1996 4th, 2000 4th, 1992 5th.

2 John Disley 3000m Steeplechase 1952 3rd 1956 6th
3 Venissa Head Shot 1984 6th Discus 1984 7th
4 Christian Malcolm 200m 2000 5th2008 5th
5 John Ainsworth Davies 400m 1920 5th
6 Lynn Davies Long Jump 1964 1st*
7 Steve Jones 10,000m 1984 8th
8 John Merriman 10,000m 1960 8th
9 Tom Richards Marathon 1948 2nd
10 Iwan Thomas 400m 1996 5th
More here
*I have his autograph somewhere