Seventy years ago Prince Alexander Obolensky, a Russian prince and Oxford University student took to breakfasting on oysters and champagne, received a surprise call-up against the All Blacks and celebrated by scoring two truly breathtaking first-half tries. Indeed, England's 13-0 win over the All Blacks in 1936 - their first-ever victory over the tourists - is universally referred to as 'Obolensky's match'. Such is fame, although, alas, Obolensky didn't live long enough to fully enjoy his celebrity status. By the age of 24 he was dead, killed in a training accident with 54 Squadron on March 29, 1940, while practising his landings in a Hawker Hurricane at RAF Martlesham Heath, in Suffolk - the first of England's many rugby internationals to be killed in the Second World War. The official accident report said that Obolensky's aircraft L1946 "dropped into a ravine at the end of the runway, breaking his neck". He is buried at the Ipswich War Cemetery. For many years up until his death, Bernard Gadney, his former England captain, visited the grave on March 29 each year to pay his respects. "He was just a nice young chap," recalled Gadney before he died in 2000. "It's what's in your heart that counts." Obolensky's fellow Oxford Blue Vivian Jenkins had seen the Russian in London a couple of weeks before his death and congratulated 'Obo' on joining up so promptly and opting for RAF. "How's the training going?" the Wales full-back asked. "It's going absolutely fine, great fun," Obolensky replied nonchalantly. "Except I still haven't got the hang of landing." Obolensky was an exotic and glamorous creature - the like of which English rugby has rarely seen; centre-stage at the Bolshoi Ballet was probably his natural habitat, but his family's flight to Britain as political refugees set him on another, altogether stranger, course. He was the son of Prince Serge Platonovich Obolensky, an officer in the Tsar’s Imperial Horse Guards, and his wife née Princess Luba Trubetzkoy; with their family name derived from the Russian town of Obolensk. They fled Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917, settling in 1919 at Muswell Hill, London. The few surviving pictures show a supremely balanced athlete with not an ounce of surplus body fat. He seemed to run as if negotiating the crown of a 220-yard race, dipping his left shoulder into the bend. From all accounts, David Duckham was the nearest modern-day comparison. Blessed with withering pace, he nonetheless despaired of the heavy clumping boots of the era and pioneered the use of lightweight boots. 'If you have got it flaunt it', was Obolensky's attitude. He wanted to maximise the effect of his exceptional speed. Rugby, nonetheless, held a precarious foothold in his life. In a hectic world of wine, women and song, debutante balls, writing theatrical reviews for Isis magazine, top-table dining at Oxford and Russian émigré society, rugby was never going to rule his life for very long. Study went on the back-burner as well, Obo scraping a sportsman's fourth in politics, philosophy and economics at Brasenose College. Twickenham was his moment. On the eve of the game he wrote to his friend 'Bish' that he had fallen in love, and that "she inspires me to score tries and work". Alas, he played just three more Tests for England in 1936, and his swansong as a representative rugby player came that summer on tour in Argentina with an Invitation British XV of British Lions strength. He allegedly scored 17 tries in a warm-up international against Brazil, but this has never been satisfactorily confirmed and seems highly unlikely. A try virtually every four minutes by the same player? If anybody has documentary evidence please step forward. Not that it really matters. The legend lives on. Obolensky's tries are seared into the memory courtesy of the footage shot at the time, and the wordsmiths who dug deep to do him justice. The Morning Post worked up a splendid head of steam: "Runners we have seen before but never such a runner with such an innate idea of where to go and how to get there. His double swerve to gain his first try was remarkable enough but the extraordinary turn-in and diagonal right to left run which won him his second and which drew forth that great Twickenham rarity, a double roar of applause, will never be forgotten by anybody who saw it." Peter Cranmer, playing centre for England that day, recalled years later: "Had I not made a mistake - passing inside as I couldn't see Obo on my right - it would never have been scored. The England side played as well that day as in any international in which I took part. They played as a complete team in spite of the fact that we had only one practice run on a Friday afternoon." The England team, in fact, was not even picked until the Friday afternoon when the squad gathered at the Honourable Artillery Company Ground in the City and training that day was close to farcical, with members of the HAC being press-ganged to provide a pack to scrummage against. That evening England retired to dine at the Metropole Hotel, in Northumberland Avenue, London, where the New Zealanders were also staying. Times have changed but a great try is always a great try and once a star always a star and Prince Obolensky was the greatest star of English rugby in History
His roots can be traced right back to the first Czar of Russia, Rurik the Rus, who was founder of Russia's first Rurik dynasty, until 15th century when the Romanovs took over. Amazing.
