Albert Churm is a lifelong sports junkie who has won trophies for everything from boxing to golf.

But his proudest achievement is his jockey career which spanned the 1950s and 1960s.

“No bragging, but I was one of Bermuda’s best,” said the 83-year-old whose friends call him “Shorty”.

One of his favourite stories is the day he broke a track record at Scarborough Downs in August 1960. He was on a horse almost everyone thought was a dud.

“It was a horse called Ni-Belle owned by Claude Terceira,” he said. “At home in Bermuda she had trouble taking the sharp turns on the Shelly Bay racetrack. Before the race in Maine, I really wondered why her owner had bothered to ship her to the US.”

The starting gate opened and Ni-Belle took off. The race went as Mr Churm expected until the half way point.

“Then I just eased the reins a bit, made a clicking noise and she took off so fast I had to grab a hold of the reins,” he said. “I put my head under my other arm and there weren’t any horses on that side either. When we came to the quarter point, I said ‘let’s go, girl’.”

Ni-Belle won by the length of seven horses, running six furlongs in one minute and twelve seconds, a track record.

“The record didn’t hold for long,” Mr Churm laughed, “but it was a record.”

He grew up on Mount Hill in Pembroke. His father, Albert, worked at Belco for a time, and later managed Gosling’s St George’s store. His mother, Alice, worked for OR Loblein’s grocery store near their home.

“Mount Hill was a lot different when we lived there than it is today,” he said. “There were lots of children in the neighbourhood and we used to have a great time together. We used to go swimming off the North Shore. I was always very active in sports like football, cricket, softball and swimming.”

But his passion was horses.

When he was 14, he would pedal on his bike on a Saturday morning, to watch the horses train.

A trainer eventually invited him to help exercise the horses every morning at 5am.

“He thought I would make a good jockey because I was always small in stature,” he said. “I got the nickname ‘Shorty’ when I was a student at Dellwood Primary School. I didn’t mind as everyone had some kind of nickname.”

As a teenager, he apprenticed as a motor mechanic, but when pressed to choose between motor mechanics and horse racing, he chose horses because it paid better.

He loved the thrill of racing even though it could be dangerous — especially on the tight track at Shelly Bay. In one incident he was involved in a three-horse pile-up.

“It was on the first turn, what they called Pearman’s Corner,” he said.

“Two horses were running side by side and hooked legs and went down. I was right behind them. I hit the rump of the one in front and cartwheeled over the three horses.

“I landed flat on my back. It knocked the wind out of me. I was sore for weeks. I was 28 then, and I have had back problems ever since.”

He met his wife, Fanny, at the racetrack. They married in 1954.

“The secret to a long and happy marriage is probably complaining a lot,” Mrs Churm joked.

They have four children, Sheri Lema, Albert “Shorty” Jr and Barbara Ingemann, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Mr Churm continued to race horses here and overseas, until Shelly Bay racetrack closed in 1961. He was a driver for local rum company Gosling’s until his father’s retirement, when he took over as manager of the St George’s store. He worked there until his own retirement at 64.

He was also a volunteer with the St George’s Fire Department for 27 years, starting in 1962.

“When I joined the fire department it was located on Penno’s Wharf,” he said. “Later it moved to right below what is now the St George’s Club. I was fire chief for about 20 years. We had about 35 men who were all volunteers.

“We were involved in a lot of different fires including fires during the riots in 1977. That was very scary. We were back of town working on a warehouse belonging to White’s Furniture Company. The rioters were all around us. We needed a police escort in. We almost had a serious accident when a wall collapsed.

“I was never injured myself, but came close once when St George’s Hardware caught fire next to the Bank of Bermuda. It was only 3ft from the bank and about 8ft from the Globe Hotel.

“It was dangerous because when we went in they had a lot of high-pressure paint spray cans that started to explode.

“One struck one of the firemen in the chest, and knocked him off his feet. He was only bruised, but if it had hit him in the face it could have been very dangerous.

“We got assistance from the Hamilton Fire Brigade. In the end, the building was completely gutted. It took them a long time to rebuild. The only thing that got damaged on the bank were six eaves and a blind. They were so happy afterward they sent us a very generous donation.”

The biggest obstacle he has overcome in his life is having cancer, twice.

“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003,” he said. “Then in 2011, I was getting hoarse although my throat didn’t hurt. Finally, they put a scope down my throat and discovered I had cancer in my voice box.”

He was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

“We spent 28 weeks out there,” he said. “I was put on a very heavy radiation treatment. What got me through was good care, and good support from my family. I think it also helped that I’d always been very active.”

He attributed the throat cancer to smoking as a younger man, and his work as a fireman.

He still misses horse racing, but these days he loves playing golf.

“I did well in that up until the last couple of years,” he said. “Now that I am getting older, I am not competitive anymore.”