The cricket star who learned to fly

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ricky Ellcock’s rollercoaster life as a fast bowler and airline pilot

Barbados-born Ricky Ellcock had twin ambitions as a boy – to become a cricketer and fly airplanes. His father was, like Ricky, cricket-mad – but on the question of him becoming a pilot his answer was emphatic: black people don’t fly planes. Ricky’s talents as a fast bowler won him many plaudits and a scholarship to come to England. Before long he was playing at the top of the sport, but the stresses on his body meant he kept breaking down. When those injuries threatened to end his career completely, Ricky looked to disprove his dad and make history in the skies.

Ricky's autobiography is called Balls to Fly.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Edgar Maddicott

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

(Photo: Ricky in action for Middlesex. Credit: Middlesex CCC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.7	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.4	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all
0:28.1	put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds.
0:42.0	Suddenly I lost all coordination on the right side of my body.
0:46.5	So I'm sitting in a cubicle thinking what in God's ever is going on.
0:51.0	And eventually they said, we don't want you to move because you're very lucky you're not dead already.
1:00.0	Today, a tale of a man born to fly, but who found himself floored on more than one occasion.
1:06.8	From the BBC World Service, I'm Osie Fuchs, and this is lives less ordinary. Ricky Elcock started life in Barbados, but he'd whizz around the world many times over as a fast bowler on a cricket field and later as an airplane pilot.
1:21.0	After his first dream career was cut short, just as it was reaching its peak, he'd make history and another.
1:28.1	Ricky came into the studio to talk with me about his time in the sun.
1:32.0	And where else to begin, but Barbados.
1:39.1	As you could imagine, it was bright, sunny.
1:42.6	We spent a lot of time outside.
1:45.0	Very, very poor village.
1:47.0	We grew up in a two-room, wooden house with my mom and my dad and my sister in a baby cot that lived in one room.
1:58.0	So my brother and myself slept in a bed in the second room.
2:02.4	But this is a house that had no kitchen. It didn't have granite water. We didn't have a toilet.
2:09.2	And my mum cooked in the backyard, you know? That's how we lived. So we didn't have a fridge
	...

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