Word: cracking
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When the Sea Witch was launched in 1846, she was the last word in sharp-bowed clipper design; wiseacres shook their heads, prophesied that any such ship would drive herself under in the first real blow. But old Tea Tycoon Prescott believed in her. He gave her to his crack master, Roger Murray, hoping for many a broken record. On shore a cold dandy, on his quarterdeck Roger was a genius. Though he took chances against all the rules, he had never lost a spar. With him shipped his brother Will as first mate; also his youngest brother Hugh, shanghaied...
...national lawn tennis championship and the cricket tests against England for a nonexistent trophy called "The Ashes." There was most excitement "Down Under" about the cricket. Not only had famed Batsman Don Bradman been bowled for a duck (put out with no runs) in the second match, but the crack British bowler, Harold Larwood, had consistently shown a distressing disregard for the safety of opposing batsmen. In the third match he had struck and injured Australia's W. M. Woodfull and W. A. Oldfield. The Australian Board of Cricket Control had addressed a protesting cable to the Marylebone Cricket...
...Three weeks ago a new subject for contention arose when Gene Sarazen, British and U. S. Open champion, ill of influenza in a Santa Monica hospital, took it upon himself to suggest that the cups on putting greens be enlarged from 4¼ in. to 8 in. Reason: "A crack player and one just average are playing. The average player puts his ball on the green, say, 20 or 25 feet from the cup. The expert is closer, say, 12 to 15 feet. But each will take two putts and halve the hole. If the cups were bigger, the average...
Much easier to operate than a steam engine is an electric locomotive. Fortnight ago Pennsylvania Railroad completed electrification of the 91 mi. between Manhattan and Philadelphia. Four crack passenger trains between the two cities, each making a roundtrip, are now electrically- drawn. Eventually all passenger trains on the run, then all freight trains, will have electric locomotives. Electrification of the lines as far as Wilmington will be completed by February but work on the Wilmington-Washington branch has been postponed...
Death, which often fluttered close to the wings of Lieut. Irvin A. Woodring, last of the Army's "Three Musketeers." overtook him last week at Wright Field. Dayton, Ohio. Week before at the same field it had flung to earth another crack Army pilot, Captain Hugh M. Elmendorf. Both men were performing their routine work of testing experimental planes. Captain Elmendorf crashed with his spinning pursuit ship. Lieut. null fighter snapped to bits in mid-air when something, possibly the propeller, broke...