Our Patch OCTOBER 2015
Our Patch OCTOBER 2015
W
hen rugby legend
Ben Cohen powered
down the wing,
he rarely passed
to team-mates,
and always ignored
their exasperated shouts.
It was only after the joint second
highest England try scorer of all time
retired from the game that specialists
discovered that he was clinically deaf.
“He jokes that that’s why he was
such a high scorer; he claims he
never heard anyone else calling for
the ball,” laughed Sarah Edworthy,
who has ghost-written the fast-paced
try-scorer’s life story.
Launched to coincide with the
Rugby World Cup, Carry Me Home:
My Autobiography is published by
Ebury Press at £20.
Ben, who has just turned 37, has had
an incredible journey.
Despite coming from a footballing
background (Uncle George made 459
appearances for Fulham and played
right back in England’s 1966 World Cup
team) he decided at 12 that rugby was
his game.
Supported on his rugby journey by
his father Peter – who knew nothing
about the game with ‘the wrongshaped ball’ – he soon made a name
for himself, eventually making 57
international appearances and helping
win the 2003 Rugby World Cup
for England in Australia… the final
remembered for that extraordinary lastgasp Jonny Wilkinson drop goal in the
dying seconds.
“Ben had unbelievable pace, and
scored incredible tries, especially against
the very strong teams,” said Sarah, who
has lived in Brackenbury Village, near
Ravenscourt Park, for 18 years.
“His story is inspirational, but also
incredibly sad.”
At school no one realised
Ben was clinically deaf in
both ears. He bluffed his
way through it
Ben’s father was savagely beaten up
after intervening to stop a night club
fight, and died a month later from
serious head injuries.
Ben was 20. He was talking to
reporters at an England press conference
when the word came through that his
father had passed away.
10/11
The Cohen family is Hammersmith
& Fulham through and through.
Both Peter and George were brought
up in Burne Jones House in Fulham’s
North End Road, in what were then
newly constructed council flats.
Ben Cohen, pictured
top right aged 17 with
dad Peter, and playing
for England against
Wales in 2004
MAIN PHOTO:
ROBERT WILSON
Others: ACTION IMAGES
BY NUMBERS
BEN COHEN
Age: 37
Age when he started rugby: 12
Senior caps: 210
Club career points: 400
Seasons he played in France: 2
England caps: 57
England points: 155
Tries on his England debut: 2
Number of celebrities knocked out
before him on Strictly: 7
Twitter followers: 95,000
Former England coach Sir Clive
Woodward, an important mentor and
trainer to Ben, had to lead him out of
the room to break the news to him.
The impact put the family under
terrible strain, but Ben channelled his
anger and pain into his rugby.
“At school no one realised he was
clinically deaf in both ears,” said
Sarah, a former sports feature writer
on The Daily Telegraph.
“Ben bluffed his way through it, so it
wouldn’t count against him.
“It was only after he retired from the
game that he had his hearing checked.
Some of his team-mates considered him
arrogant because he always seemed to
ignore them.”
THE GHOST WRITER
For Sarah, one of the most pleasurable
aspects of helping Ben write his
memoirs has been interviewing family
and friends.
“George reminisced about his
Fulham days,” said Sarah.
“He’s a lovely person to chat to; he
chats and chuckles at the same time. He
is very supportive of Ben.”
Peter met Ben’s mother when he was
working at Harrods as a distribution
manager.
“He was the most supportive dad,”
said Sarah. “A real Del Boy type;
larger than life with the proverbial
heart of gold.”
Part of Ben’s story is a tale
of his motivation, and how,
having retired from the game,
he funnelled his energies into
combatting bullying, including
homophobic bullying.
“It’s a sad book, too, because
he’s a candid, kind-hearted bloke
who is open about his feelings,”
said Sarah.
“He was very conscientious to
work with, always suggesting
other people I could talk to, to
get a different angle.”
That entailed hopping on
the bus down King Street to
interview Sir Clive Woodward
in Hammersmith, and talking to Matt
Dawson, who also lives nearby.
Sarah, who studied English at
Oxford, is carving out an intriguing
career in ghost-writing books
for people in the news, as well
as producing more mainstream
volumes, many
drawing on her experience acquired
during 12 years on the Telegraph
sports desk.
She penned the story of
the London 2012 torch relay,
she co-wrote the account of