Who would World Cup opposition openers least want to face on a nibbly early-summer morning? Anderson, Wood or Stone?
If I had to draw up a top-five list of eccentric 20th-century British army officers Jack Churchill would definitely be up there, at the very least in the mix. A male model, film actor and expert archer and fencer, “Fighting Jack” was also the last British soldier to insist on marching into battle with a sword, longbow and a set of bagpipes, as he did to great effect against the mechanised might of the Third Reich.
Churchill used his bow and arrow to lead a successful ambush of a German patrol in northern France in May 1940, an act that helped him win the Military Cross. A year later, he leaped off the first landing craft in the commando raid on Norway and fought his way through the streets at sword-point. He was eventually captured in 1944, knocked unconscious by a grenade as he played “Will Ye No Come Back Again?” on his bagpipes in the face of the advancing enemy.
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