Downfall of Boris the Cheat
QUESTION
Zinedine Zidane’s last act on a football pitch was to be sent off for headbutting an opposition player in the 2006 World Cup final. What other ignominious ends to sporting careers have there been? There are some famous examples of this: Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorious killing his girlfriend, and high-profile drugs cheats such as Canadian 100m runner Ben Johnson, U.S. athlete Marion Jones, the darling of American track and field, and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Perhaps less well known is Soviet pentathlete Boris Onishchenko. he was a three-time world champion who had won a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the fencing section was a one-touch epee tournament in which Onishchenko was considered the best in the event.
In this event a hard-enough touch (750g pressure) registered a point on an electronic scorer. During his bout with British team captain Jim Fox, the British team protested that Onishchenko’s weapon fired without making contact. It was found that Onischenko’s epee had been illegally modified to include a switch that allowed him to close this circuit without even touching his opponent.
The Soviet team was disqualified and Britain went on to win gold. Onishchenko was dubbed ‘Disonischenko’ and ‘Boris the Cheat’ in the Press, and even the other Soviet athletes threatened to throw him off the balcony if he returned to their hotel.
Back in Moscow, he was hauled before Premier Leonid Brezhnev who stripped him of his past honours and his position in the red Army, fined him 5,000 rubles and reduced the former Olympian to working as a cab driver in Kiev.
Peter Smith, Durham. One of the saddest ends to a career I have seen was that of Leicestershire cricketer Scott Boswell. At the time, the 26-year-old bowler was enjoying one of his best seasons.
In the semi-final of the 2001 C&G Trophy against Lancashire, a one- day competition, Boswell had bowled magnificently taking four for 44, all of them england players in a match-winning performance.
In the final at Lord’s against Somerset, Boswell had an attack of the ‘yips’ and bowled one of the worst overs of all time. Six of his first eight balls were wides, including five in a row. Bemused batsman Marcus Trescothick hit a couple of the straighter balls for four. That over lasted 14 balls and ended Boswell’s first- class career. he finished with figures of 2-0-23-0 and was unable to bowl again. he was let go by his county a month later.
Kyle Calderwood, Truro, Somerset. One of the most infamous events in sport was the Black Sox Scandal, the revelation that eight Chicago White Sox players had conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati reds.
To make matters worse, America’s most adored player ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson was a member of the group. his participation led to Jackson coming out of a courthouse and a young boy memorably speaking for all fans by calling out: ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe!’
Jackson was banned from baseball for life. It’s said to have caused the Black Sox Curse, which wasn’t lifted until 2005 when The White Sox finally won the World Series.
Brian Dean, London W14.
QUESTION
Does anyone know the words of a song/poem which was popular in the Fifties that contained the lines: ‘He combed his hair with an engine wheel, and cried with toothache in his heel’? THIS is an old U.S. minstrel song called Old Dan Tucker. In exaggerated Creole vernacular, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker’s exploits in a strange town, where he overeats, fights, gets drunk and breaks other social taboos.
The song is thought to have been written by Daniel Decatur ‘Dan’ emmett (18151904), author of Dixie, who led the Virginia Minstrels, one of the earliest ‘blackface’ groups. Like many minstrel songs, it has been freely re-interpreted, with hundreds of verses added over the years.
In his old age, emmett related to his biographer h. Ogden Wintermute: ‘I composed Old Dan Tucker in 1830 or 1831 when I was 15 or 16 years old.’ The Charles Keith company first published Old Dan Tucker in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1843.
The sheet music credits words to Dan emmett, but says the song is from Old Dan emmett’s Original Banjo Melodies. The lack of attribution of a melody might, as some musicologists suggest, mean that emmett didn’t write it. Some believe it was written by a former slave called Dan Tucker Jr.
The original version is the type of masculine boastful song that typified early minstrelry. It began: ‘I come to town de udder night, I hear de noise den saw de fight, De watchman was a runnin roun, (Chorus) Cryin Old Dan Tucker’s come to town, So get out de way! Get out de way! Get out de way! Old Dan Tucker, You’re too late to come to supper. Tucker is an ugly, brutal drinking man ‘Tucker was a hardened sinner, He nebber said his grace at dinner; De ole sow squeel, de pigs did squall He ’hole hog wid de tail and all.’ The song isn’t sung in its original form because of its racist overtones: Tucker on de wood pile — can’t
count ’lebben, Put in a fedder bed — him gwine
to hebben, His nose so flat, his face so full, De top ob his head like a bag ob wool. A version of it opens Bruce Springsteen’s American roots album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006). It begins: ‘Now Old Dan Tucker was a fine
old man Washed his face in a fryin’ pan Combed his hair with a wagon wheel And died with a toothache in his heel Get out the way, Old Dan Tucker You’re too late to get your supper Get out the way, Old Dan Tucker You’re too late to get your supper’.
Geoffrey Dalling Lyme Regis, Dorset.
QUESTION
If the U.S. President and Vice-President were both killed, who would take control of the government? FURTHER to the earlier answer, this subject is the theme of the ABC drama called Designated Survivor. On the night of the State of the Union address, an explosion claims the lives of the President and all members of the Cabinet except for U.S. Secretary of housing and Urban Development Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) and propels him from 11th place in the order of succession into the top spot.
Olivia Napier, Chepstow, Monmouthshire.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT. You can also fax them to 01952 780111 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.