2003 - the DHO

Book Review
'The History of Ski Jumping 5 by Tim Ashbumer.
I was considerably surprised to learn that despite the fact that ski jumping has been
an established sport for over 100 years a formal history had never been written.
Had anyone asked, I would have certainly have hazarded a guess that some
Norwegian must have already 'hoppe'd' along and done the job. Apparently not,
and club member, Tim Ashburner, has done so.
Tim, who has heen involved with ski jumping for over 40 years, has collated the fruits of much research into this well presented
book. Having learnt to ski in Norway, I found the reports of the earliest ski jumping competitions between 1880 and 1914 well
covered. The two Ruud brothers and other Norwegians were feted competitors in the jumping and cross-country events held in
Austria, Germany and Switzerland which drew enormous crowds in those years.
The contribution of the two Britons, Edward and William Richardson to the development of both jumping and downhill ski
racing before and after The First World War is equally well documented. As always with such books, to the casual reader some of
the content can be repetitive, but it aspires to be a formal record and details of Olympic records are included.
The Chris Mackintosh mentioned in pages 62 and 63 was
C.E.W. Mackintosh, the President of the D.H.O from
1957 to 1964. His son Charlach who lives in Alberta,
Canada, is still a member, as is his daughter Sheena
Hilleary.
During much the same period, 1957 to 1962, Colonel
Percy Legard ran his ski jumping course for beginners
on the slope above Mary's Cafe which can be reached
via Devil's Gap. A great character, Percy stood out like
l bottle of Dole among the Feldschlossen, and for a
few winters had his Pink Bar in the Palace Hotel (now
owned by Club Med). Tim and some of the better
jumpers got the old Jimgfrauschanz.e open again and
ran ski jumping classes there in January 1964.
There are, apparently, tens of thousands of converts
to the sport on the plastic jumping hills of Korea,
Japan and elsewhere. Tim will, I trust, find his book
a far greater sales success overseas than it will be
here where mere mention of ski jumping leads
people to immediately think of Eddie 'the Eagle'.
Copies of the book can be obtained from Quiller
Press, Shrewsbury, tel: 01939-261616.
David Price