Terrific story, Ron. Thanks for posting the link to the book. I must try to get hold of a copy.
Camphill is my club so I'm going to send the link to the editor of Camphill News, our in-house magazine - I think he might enjoy the story, although he was probably around at the time of the 1953 Nationals and may know it already.
It reminded me of a tale told by one of our top pilots who flew into a promising Cu only for it to develop into a CuNim once he was in it. He wrote-up the story for Sailplane and Gliding magazine who printed it - anonymously, of course. Whilst in the cloud he was thrown around so violently that, although he knew what heading he needed to get out, he couldn't do anything about it. He topped out above 21,000 ft. - and he had left his oxygen gear in his trailer!!! His maximum recorded vertical speed was in excess of 34 knots. He had come out into bright sunshine and landed back at his departure field only minutes later in a deluge.