Blog: Will Tidey - Freelance Sportswriter

The Potato, The Walrus & The Raging Blancmange

For a generation weaned on heroin chic, liposuction and size zero models, sport has served as an unlikely bastion of moral sensibility. As Bermudian spinner Dwayne Leverock will testify, in our world a few extra meals can put your next one on the table.

At 19 stone, Leverock is the latest in a long line of portly sportsman to garner acclaim on the cricket field. Whether he could justify inclusion in an all-time "rotund and revered XI" is unlikely however. Colin Milburn, Darren Lehmann, Inzamam "the potato" Ul-Haq, Greg "fat cat" Ritchie and W.G. Grace would make anyone's line-up. Whoever joined them, the battle to field in the slips would be brutal.

Cricket fans are not alone in their love for the plus-size performer. Before football entered the age of nutrionalists, Ferenc Puskas scored goals for fun and washed them down with a cake chaser. "Look at that little fat chap, we'll murder this lot," said one England player to another during the warm-up to the 1953 clash against Hungary at Wembley. A victory of both style and substance ensued.

Unscientifically speaking, perhaps there's something to be said of the link between diet and performance. American golfer Craig Stadler lost two stone in 2000 but put it all back on again when his game became as loose as his trousers. "The walrus" immediately regained his form, sticking a symbolic two fingers in the direction of Gillian McKeith and heading to KFC with his prize money.

Stadler's physique made him a cult hero, more popular than many of his more gifted fellow professionals. An academic might say his perceived physical "flaws" signposted an endearing vulnerability that humanised him. He was a professional golfer, but he looked like your dad's mate in the pub.

No calorific countdown would be complete without a mention for American boxer Eric Esch. The 40 year-old former IBA Super Heavyweight champion, nicknamed "butterbean", weighed over 30 stone at the dawn of his career and has become a star of video game (Knockout Kings, Toughman Contest) and film (Jackass: The Movie, Chairman of the Board).

Despite a reputation for lacking endurance, Esch lasted ten rounds with Larry Holmes in 2002, knocking him down in the last, before losing on points. In addition to a boxing career that has brought 77 wins from 88 fights, he has starred in WWF and mixed-martial arts. Labelled "the raging blancmange" by the British press, Esch's popularity endures to this day.

"Several lucky things have happened," he said. "I knocked out a referee in one of my fights, and me and Jay Leno became friends. I've been on the Tonight show seven times - that just don't happen. In fact, that really helped."

For once, the moral high ground is ours. There is no such thing as sizism in sport.

By Will Tidey
http://www.willtidey.blogspot.com

by Will on 16:36 on 16th April 2007