On Thursday I went to a cricket legends dinner organized by the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Apart from the free booze, the main reason for going was to hear some good anecdotes and they didn’t disappoint.
Beefy was slicker and a more experienced speaker than Lamby and opened up with the tale of how he ran Geoff Boycott out in New Zealand. Considering how many times he must have told this tale, he managed to make it sound fresh, and his appalling Boycott impression was worth the entrance fee on its own.
Lamby had some good gags, including the infamous Glenn McGrath-Eddo Brandes biscuit sledge and also reminded the audience that Pietersen and Tony Greig aren’t the only Saffers to captain England (Lamb captained England for three tests, without much success).
We were invited to write questions for the speakers, and, while some of my table’s ruder ones got filtered out, we still got some good questions in. In response to “Who is the most annoying person to commentate with and why?” Beefy answered Bumble when he’s in one of his darker moods. Apparently Nasser is ok now that they have got him to relax a bit and new boy Athers has no sense of smell and sometimes forgets to wear deodorant, which is tough on the other people in the studio!
The great Derek Randall also featured regularly in the anecdotes. Apparently the poor guy once got to the middle during a test match only to discover that Ian Botham had filled his batting gloves with condoms. I forget what he had done to deserve this.
When asked whether he would rather be stuck in a lift with Ian Chappell or Peter Roebuck, Beefy replied that he wasn’t sure because: “One’s gay and complicated, and the other’s just thick”.
Beefy was slicker and a more experienced speaker than Lamby and opened up with the tale of how he ran Geoff Boycott out in New Zealand. Considering how many times he must have told this tale, he managed to make it sound fresh, and his appalling Boycott impression was worth the entrance fee on its own.
Lamby had some good gags, including the infamous Glenn McGrath-Eddo Brandes biscuit sledge and also reminded the audience that Pietersen and Tony Greig aren’t the only Saffers to captain England (Lamb captained England for three tests, without much success).
We were invited to write questions for the speakers, and, while some of my table’s ruder ones got filtered out, we still got some good questions in. In response to “Who is the most annoying person to commentate with and why?” Beefy answered Bumble when he’s in one of his darker moods. Apparently Nasser is ok now that they have got him to relax a bit and new boy Athers has no sense of smell and sometimes forgets to wear deodorant, which is tough on the other people in the studio!
The great Derek Randall also featured regularly in the anecdotes. Apparently the poor guy once got to the middle during a test match only to discover that Ian Botham had filled his batting gloves with condoms. I forget what he had done to deserve this.When asked whether he would rather be stuck in a lift with Ian Chappell or Peter Roebuck, Beefy replied that he wasn’t sure because: “One’s gay and complicated, and the other’s just thick”.
It was also amusing to watch the charity auctioneers struggle to persuade Hong Kong’s bankers to part with their cash on one of the worst days for the stockmarket in many years.
1 comment:
Great stuff Pete. Ian Botham is the perfect response to the credit crunch. We could call him "Sub-Prime Beef"...
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