|
|
Post by hawke on Jun 13, 2024 14:34:01 GMT
After posting about meeting Gareth Southgate and his children some 15 years ago when walking with my son near Swinsty reservoir I thought this might make an interesting thread. I know Dave M has one that cannot be surpassed. Any others?
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jun 13, 2024 16:52:13 GMT
An example. I was at a tennis tournament at a Leeds Tennis and Squash Club with my daughter. She came off court and when she was coming to sit down tripped over somebody’s bag. The owner apologised. It was Bobby Collins, formerly of Scotland, Celtic, Everton and Leeds Utd.
We ended up having a very interesting 15 minute chat.
|
|
|
|
Post by newby on Jun 13, 2024 19:02:44 GMT
Here we go then, trip down memory lane, if you go that far back.
I think I was 12, perhaps 13, if you are from the Leeds area you might remember the very large outdoor swimming pool at Roundhay Park, if you're not, there used to be one just down the hill from Waterloo lake.
Anyway during the summer holidays, I seem to remember the sun always shined in those days, I and a couple of friends from school used to spend a lot of time there. One of my friends lived near Roundhay on a posh new housing estate, and his next door neighbour was the mother of a fairly well known singer from those days called Marion Ryan (Quiz programme called Spot the tune with Ted Ray). She was big in Leeds anyway.
I'll keep it short we ended up with Marion's two sons, who were staying with their grandma during the school holidays, joining our little group down at the pool. They were the same age as us but perhaps a little more sophisticated, they could speak French for heavens sake.
For about a fortnight we thought it was hilarious going around asking people questions in the very bad French they passed on to us, mainly what the time was, and other silly little enquiries.
Paul and Barry Ryan, nice couple of lads, went on to form a singing duo and had their 15 minutes of fame in the late 60's early 70's.
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 6, 2024 6:59:42 GMT
I'm returning to this theme to single out Geoffrey Boycott. 3 brushes with fame with the great batsman. I will have mentioned them before but here is the first. I was a child watching a benefit match in Hull in the sixties. Sir Leonard was present. We youngsters were out and about seeking autographs after the game in the car park. We queued for Geoff but then Sir Leonard was spotted. A number of us left the line and dashed off to him. But Hutton was not signing and was driven away. Geoff then announced that he would not sign for those who had left his queue! Competitive from the start? We trudged off unhappily......
A few years later we received Hutton's autograph in a biography of him. My dad met a Lancastrian cricket fan on holiday at our hotel in Whitby who had connections and shortly after returning home the book arrived signed by Sir Leonard. I still have it.
|
|
|
|
Post by davemorton on Jul 6, 2024 18:55:05 GMT
My one that can't be surpassed is Wilfred Rhodes. I was about 12, newly moved to Burton-on-Trent where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law, and my pushy dad engineered a meeting. Years later I met Garfield Sobers in Barbados, so I reckon that's probably the two greatest human beings ever.
Two other international cricketers I know (or knew) quite well are Mike Atherton and Barry Wood, both as a result of my involvement in Manchester Schools cricket, Mike as a young player, and Barry as the father of a player on my team. Andy Hinchcliffe (Man City, Everton, etc) was another of my players, and a very good one.
For people who know music (which definitely isn't me), while at college I played in the same team as Mike d'Abo, who was a poor batsman, an even worse fieldsman, but who played the piano brilliantly in the pub after the match. Posh Harrow boy, I think he was. A lot posher than Gary Ballance! I believe he became well known outside Selwyn College and the Hat & Feathers.
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 6, 2024 20:18:49 GMT
Great stuff Dave. Glad we teased the Wilfred Rhodes story out of you. Do you recall anything of him?
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 6, 2024 20:19:58 GMT
Yes I’ve seen Mike D’Abo a few times with the Manfreds
|
|
|
|
Post by davemorton on Jul 6, 2024 21:39:44 GMT
There was a game we played, I was bowling my increasingly occasional leg-breaks, and d'Abo was at mid-off. The batsman drove, hard, but waist high wide of me, but straight of Mike, who started to run to his right. But I dived and got my finger tips to it, completely wrong-footing him. Somehow he managed to twist in the air, stick out his left hand, and he caught the thing.
It was probably the only catch he made all season.
Of Rhodes, the chief things were that he was ancient - about the age I am now! - and totally blind, dressed in an old fashioned waistcoat. I was very shy of him, but fascinated by his pocket watch, which chimed the time when he pressed a button. I think he left Burton shortly afterwards, which was near where his old friend SF Barnes lived, in Stoke, and they moved to Bournemouth, where he died.
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 7, 2024 5:13:29 GMT
Mike D'Abo is related to a former occasional Yorkshire player, Bill Harbord, who appeared in the thirties and toured the West Indies with the MCC party in 1934-5. He was a very odd choice to tour but a lot of players turned it down and he could go because he was from a wealthy family, marrying into the John Smith brewers and becoming managing-director. He was allowed to interrupt the tour to go on a private trip to Miami! He also served as a YCCC committee man for years. Harbord was actually born in Rutland, the only man to date born in the smallest county to play for the largest. He was brought up in Yorkshire.
|
|
|
|
Post by karma on Jul 7, 2024 8:27:54 GMT
I had a very brief wrestle with fame some years ago when playing five-aside football on a Friday evening after the end of the working week .
Our team was made up of work colleagues and regulars. The team we were playing was a firm of accountants . They were short on numbers and asked could they have a guest player, It's a social thing so we said yes
When we lined-up, I recognised their guest as being Peter Lorimer ,think he was one of their clients. He was older a little bit thicker round the middle( aren't we all?) and play commenced. He was good , not outstanding but he knew how to use his weight to good effect. Five-a-side in gymn is not really meant to be contact sport!
He could still shoot of course, especially when it was my turn in goal!
|
|
|
|
Post by davemorton on Jul 7, 2024 8:37:11 GMT
You should see a rugby team playing five-a-side soccer in a gym! You don't get invited again. Clash of cultures, big time!
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 7, 2024 9:31:34 GMT
I had a very brief wrestle with fame some years ago when playing five-aside football on a Friday evening after the end of the working week . Our team was made up of work colleagues and regulars. The team we were playing was a firm of accountants . They were short on numbers and asked could they have a guest player, It's a social thing so we said yes When we lined-up, I recognised their guest as being Peter Lorimer ,think he was one of their clients. He was older a little bit thicker round the middle( aren't we all?) and play commenced. He was good , not outstanding but he knew how to use his weight to good effect. Five-a-side in gymn is not really meant to be contact sport! He could still shoot of course, especially when it was my turn in goal! brilliant! I played in goal for a 5 a-side team for years and got peppered all over by Hot Shots. Wish one had come from Peter Lorimer! |
|
|
|
Post by donnylad on Jul 7, 2024 15:15:24 GMT
Doncaster station - summer - mud 1960s - holiday job at Doncaster plant that involved taking spare locomotive parts to the station and putting them on trains to depots all over the Eastern region. We also collected incoming stuff off trains and took it to the workshops. Often we would have to wait at the station between despatching something and collecting. One day a northbound from Kings Cross pulled in and a group of blokes pile out of a carriage and head for the guards van.
The station master grabs all staff to help unload their luggage ..... large wooden boxes about 4 feet lons by a foot square.
"Shift these coffins" we are told and when I see the name on one of them I realise what they are and who they belong to.
It is the YCCC team on the way to Hull for a fixture having played in London, Close and Boycott, I remember clearly. I helped carry DBC's coffin across the platform and up to platform 6 where the Hull train would stop.
He may have said something to me but I could decipher the grunt and he had a fag in his mouth as well!!! Not a chance of an autograph with the Stationmaster supervising!
|
|
|
|
Post by hawke on Jul 7, 2024 18:06:37 GMT
Great one donnylad
|
|
|
|
Post by slowleftarmer on Jul 8, 2024 9:52:11 GMT
When I started work in Leeds in the late 80s, i worked in the tall building behind the Merrion Centre. DB Close worked on another floor in the building and I often had a brief chat with him as i was coming back from lunch and he was outside having a fag and looking at the Racing Post or trying to find the Yorkshire score in the days before the internet.
And I have sometimes stood at the side of a hockey pitch watching one of my kids play and have chatted with David Byas whose daughter was in the opposition. My son also played against Steve McLarens son (at hockey) but as he was holding an umbrella to shield himself from the rain we refrained from going for a chat with the man who had previously been known as the Wally with the Brolly
|
|
