The Idler, Tuesday, February 10

Is this Bigfoot?

HAS the mythical Bigfoot been captured on camera? Footage shot in the snow at Yellowstone National 

Park, in the US, appears to show not one but four of the creatures.

The footage shows bison roaming near the geyser, Old Faithful.- until four creatures walking upright 

appear in the background. They are huge. Bigfoot is the North American counterpart of the Himalayan 

Yeti, or Abominable Snowman.

Bigfoot enthusiasts have long sought evidence proving the existence of the creature. Scientists believe 

sightings are cases of misidentification of other animals or hoaxes.

Yellowstone National Park spokesperson Al Nash says: "Bigfoot sightings are not frequent, but they 

happen. People say a lot of crazy things about Yellowstone and Bigfoot is just one of them."

Could the sighting have been of my old colleague, Peter Younghusband, doyen in his day of Africa's 

foreign correspondents? The hulking Younghusband had the nickname, Bigfoot. Maybe he and his tribe 

took a trip to Yellowstone.

In his book, Every Meal A Banquet, Every Night A Honeymoon, Younghusband describes how, 

pestered by his newspaper in London to provide colourful material to fill space in an emergency, he sent 

off an over-the-top piece about a tribe in the Okavango Swamps of Botswana who lived off mosquitoes 

and had evolved into becoming so light they could jump from one lily pad to the next as they hunted 

mosquitoes.

Unfortunately, his editor was thrilled by the piece and splashed it under the headline: "The spidermen of 

Okavango". He also sent Younghusband a cable congratulating him.

But things turned sour next day when the Botswana High Commissioner paid a visit to point out that the 

story, er, lacked substance.

Maybe this Bigfoot sighting falls into much the same category.

Telex exchange

YOUNGHUSBAND'S book took its title from an exchange by telex between a Fleet Street news editor 

and a correspondent who had been sent to Africa but had filed not a thing in several weeks.

"Presume you alive and well and living in Africa?"

"Every meal a banquet, every night a honeymoon."

Those caps

THE mystery of the two cricket caps in Chris Burger's collection of memorabilia is now solved. The red, 

black and white one (as published last week) is of Crockett's XI, Michaelhouse and Hilton old boys who 

had achieved provincial honours. The blue, cream, gold and black one is of Western Province Cricket 

Club (the club, not the provincial side).

The caps are among the collection of Chris Burger, who captained Zingari and was a swashbuckling 

batsman for Natal and South Africa in the late 50s and early sixties. He died last year and the 

memorabilia has been donated by Chris's son, David, to his old school, Michaelhouse.

My old pal, sailing maestro Richard Crockett, says the XI was founded by his grandfather HL 

Crockett (who went on to become president of Natal and then South African cricket). The red was for 

Michaelhouse, the black for Hilton and white was common to both schools.

The bird on the badge is a Cornish Chough, which is the Crockett coat-of-arms. The Crockett's XI used 

to play twice a year and the pupils at Michaelhouse and Hilton were given half-days so they could 

watch.

"Regrettably, with the advent of TV and a glut of sport, Crockett's XI eventually folded."

The Western Province Cricket Club cap was identified by Barry Foster, Dave Peters, Peter Maccallum 

and Struan Robertson.

Wager

DAVE Peters recognised the Western Province Cricket Club colours because his dad, Donnie, and his 

Uncle Arthur played for them in days of yore.

In fact Uncle Arthur once scored a double century, also winning a huge supply of beer.

It was from a wager entered into in the Olympics Club, in Rondebosch, one evening when one Rex 

Ainslie told Uncle Arthur he would buy him a pint of beer for every run he made above nine next day. 

Arthur scored 204, which meant Ainslie owed him 195 beers.

Tailpiece

PADDY goes to the doctor and asks for a complete medical examination. The doctor is astonished to 

find banknotes stuffed into his ears his nostrils and another orifice. He removes them and counts them.

"There's one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds here."

"Dat's right. I knew I wasn't feelin' two grand."

Last word

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others 

are here for I don't know.

W H Auden