Buff body fit to play Bond
QUESTION Did Sean Connery compete in the Mr Universe competition?
Sean Connery was proud of his physique and as a young man honed it during his years in the royal navy and as a lifeguard, labourer mixing cement, steelworker and coffin polisher.
He was happy to earn a few shillings an hour moonlighting as a model at edinburgh College of art.
a keen bodybuilder from the age of 18, he tried his luck in the Mr Universe contest. organised annually by the national amateur Body-Builders’ association, the most famous Mr Universe was arnold Schwarzenegger in 1967.
The 23-year-old Connery weighed 14 stone with the vital statistics 48 in chest, 25 in thighs and 15 ¼ in arms.
The 1953 contest took place at London’s royal Hotel. arnold Dyson, from Liverpool, was crowned Mr Universe in the professional division.
The winner of the amateur contest, Bill Pearl, recalled Connery was a fellow competitor in the same height class.
Pearl would go on to win Mr Universe five times and was named the World’s Best-Built Man of the Century.
Connery came in third place, and during the competition he heard that acting work was available in the chorus line of the musical South Pacific. He toured with the show and then decided he wanted to become a full-time actor.
If he had not taken part in Mr Universe, Connery would not have played James Bond in seven films, won Golden Globes, an oscar for The Untouchables, Baftas and been made a knight.
People magazine voted him the Sexiest Man of the Century in 1999 and the Sunday Herald newspaper chose him as the Greatest Living Scot in 2004.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION Is it true that hay bales can combust spontaneously?
noT only hay bales but straw can set on fire spontaneously in certain conditions. The moisture content needs to be above a certain limit so that micro-organisms such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi can start digesting the fibre. This chemical process produces heat.
If the hay or straw is scattered around, this heat is rapidly lost and no harm is done. But if baled, the heat is contained by the insulating effect of the material and the internal temperature rises.
This encourages the organisms to increase their digestion and produce even more heat.
Though the organisms generally die off when the temperature rises above 75c, oxygen in the air continues to oxidise the surface of individual fibres, producing more heat. The higher the temperature, the faster the oxidation.
eventually, so much heat is produced that the decomposing material ignites. That is why farmers are concerned that hay and straw are cut and baled when it is dry.
There have been rare cases of the spontaneous combustion of some metals in powder form and also rags used to clean brushes and equipment used with oil-based paints. John Webb, retired senior scientific officer,
Fire Research Station, St Albans, Herts. aS a child in the 1950s, I stayed on a farm outside Belfast run by an elderly family using horses rather than tractors. after loading the hay into the shed, it was checked regularly by the farmer by thrusting in his arm as far as he could to check the temperature.
It seemed a constant worry as he carried this out at regular intervals. I was told overheating is caused by storing the hay with too high a moisture content.
Terry Davidson, Bangor, Co. Down.
QUESTION Are there any other cities with as many professional football league teams as London?
aS of the 2020-21 season, there are 12 London professional teams in the top four tiers of the english League.
Six compete in the Premier League: arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. There are three in the Championship, Brentford, Millwall and Queens Park rangers; two in League one, afC Wimbledon and Charlton athletic; and Leyton orient in League Two.
Istanbul goes one better with 13 professional teams. The Super Lig, the country’s top flight of football, is contested by 21 clubs, of which five are in Turkey’s most populous city.
These are the Uc buyukler or Big Three — Besiktas, fenerbahce and Galatasaray — along with Istanbul Basaksehir fK and Kasimpasa.
In the Turkish football federation first League, the second level of competition, there are three Istanbul clubs: Tuzlaspor, Umraniyespor and Istanbulspor. In the third tier there are five clubs from the city: Sancaktepe, Kocaelispor, Sariyer, Pendikspor and eyupspor.
Some countries allow reserve teams in their leagues. Madrid has 15 league teams, three of which are reserves.
In La Liga, the top tier, the city has real Madrid, atletico Madrid and Getafe. There are four clubs in the Segunda Division: Leganes, rayo Vallecano, alcorcon and fuenlabrada.
In the third tier, Segunda Division B, there are eight: atletico Madrid B, Getafe B, Internacional, Las rozas, navalcarnero, rayo Majadahonda, real Madrid Castilla and San Sebastian de los reyes.
Jonathan Hume, Sheffield, S. Yorks.
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