Peter Hoskin

Would modern Olympians do the same?

Exactly 80 years ago today:

“At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, Bobby Pearce, a third-generation sculling champion from the Sydney suburb of Double Bay, faced an unexpected challenge in the middle of his quarterfinal race against Victor Saurin of France: a family of ducks passed single-file in front of his boat. Pearce let them pass and then sculled to victory, much to the delight of the Dutch onlookers. In the final, Pearce defeated Kenneth Myers of the United States by the unusually large margin of 9.8 seconds.”

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Henry Williams

Where have all the rabbits gone?

From the magazine
It’s spring and in this corner of rural Sussex, the bluetits are at the window, newborn lambs are bleating in their pens, and all the rabbits are dead. The burrows are still there, but the chewed grass, the little collections of brown pellets, the white bobtails scattering before your headlights at night, they are gone.

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