Discussion Favourite Celebrity Meetings

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#1
Herbie got me thinking.

Stumbled into a bar outside of Bridgetown Oval after a day of $ 20 all you can drink rum in the party stand and said to the barman I would love to meet Greendidge , lo and behold he was 2-3 spots down the bar , can't recall the conversation but bought him a drink & he signed my shirt for me , no doubt told him how great he was in my drunken stupour a hundred times ?
I was working in the pro shop at Thurgoona when the club was thinking of building another 9. Peter Thompson and Michael Wolveridge came out to do an inspection of the land and I spent two hours driving 5 time British Open Champion Peter Thompson around the course. He was such good company and the pair of them were very funny which surprised me. They loved calling the dry creek a barranca. They designed the original 18 and as we were driving around they talked about how the 10th was supposed to replicate the first at St Andrews with a really wide fairway. Then they started laughing their heads off. The club just hadn't been able to maintain the rough so you could hit it anywhere.
Michael Wolveridge passed away only a month ago and for the non golfers he was Thomson's golf design partner for a long time and they built 100's of courses all over the world.
 
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#2
Merv was my tour host on my cricket trip to NZ in 2005.

Absolute royal pain in the arse when trying to watch the cricket or sitting in the tour bus by clicking/flicking your ears , head , hat , elbow etc etc ? but a brilliant bloke , down to earth easy to talk to about the cricket and football etc etc.

Surprised me actually how knowledgeable and tactical he was about the game , always had a interesting comment about the situation of the game.

Each morning he would talk about the game and at the end of the days play be available for a debrief and a beer or 2.

Shared himself around each morning with the tour group at breakfast time.

Ate my dessert in Auckland but forgave him.

Must have got him 20 beers at a function in Wellington , and he told me once I got a Test wicket he would get me a beer ?

Won one of Gilly's gloves in a raffle and he organised to get it signed , framed etc etc and shipped it home to me at no cost to myself.

2006/07 was in the Rosemont in Hindley Street with some Pommie supporters , Merv walked in , saw me and bought me a beer , think he was a selector at the time , the Pommies were gobsmacked.

When I was in the WI in 2008 in Jamaica , went with a different tour group , Merv's mob were staying at the hotel , caught up again with a few beers.

Saw him in a towel and he is probably the biggest , hairiest human being I have seen.

Great bloke , great trip

Stackpole was my tour host in the WI , was always approachable but different setup.

Did come out of his way though to tell me about Bob Cowper one afternoon.
 
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Rowsus

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#3
Merv was my tour host on my cricket trip to NZ in 2005.

Must have got him 20 beers at a function in Wellington , and he told me once I got a Test wicket he would get me a beer ?

2006/07 was in the Rosemont in Hindley Street with some Pommie supporters , Merv walked in , saw me and bought me a beer
I want to hear more about your first Test Wicket! ;)
 
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#4
Chris Lewis & Chris Jordan were on the plane from London to Jamaica , had a few beers.

Next day walking the streets (safe during the day , scarey at night) , saw them on the other side cross and make a bee line for me , thought **** I am going to get mugged , then realised it was them......couple of beers with them.

Few years later Lewis got done for drug possession/running , maybe he was going to set me up as a mule hahaha.

Courtney Walsh had a bar their but wasn't working when I went there.

Deadly rum in Kingston , strange odour in the grandstand at the cricket ? , Marley still lives on , but so bloody scarey at night.
 

Rowsus

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#6
My favourite story involving myself and a celebrity.

Back in the mid 80's I had a friend (Murray), he was always gob smacked by the fact that, wherever we went, I would see/meet people I know. We went up to Corowa for a few days golf in the middle of a winter week one time. Late at night, not long before the bar closed, there was just Murray, myself, and our other golfing partner at the bar, when 2 other people walked in. Yep, I knew one of them! 300km from home, pretty much empty bar, and I meet someone I know. It actually used to get to the point it really irritated him!

Well, flash forward a few months, and we went to a golf tourament at Royal Melbourne on a Sunday. Murray's father was a Greenie at Royal Melbourne, so at the end of the days play, through his connections, we snuck into the Clubhouse for a few beers. It was jam packed, couldn't move in there. When we finally managed to get some beers, the 4 of us stood having a chat, and Murray started to tell the others, that EVERYWHERE we go, I meet someone I know. He was punctuating his stories with lots of "He just seems to know everyone", and his crowning story was the Corowa golf trip. Well, he had just finished telling the Corowa story, when our group, particularly me, got a decent jostle from the group behind us. I turned to see what happened, as the person behind me turned to see as well. It was Fitzroy footballer Mickey Conlan. Mickey stopped, looked me in the eye, and said "Sorry about that, Rowan. Are you ok?".
Murray was just so crest fallen, he nearly became a puddle on the ground! "I can't stand it!" he said "How the hell do you know Mickey Conlan??!!".

I was working at Myer (Southland) in the Sporting Goods Dept. at the time, and Mickey was my Puma rep.
 

Rowsus

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#7
A story not directly involving myself, and around the same time as the above story.

We used to get pretty busy on a Saturday morning back then. The shops were only open until noon, and it could be a bit of a bunfight, as people only had 3 hours, and no Sunday trading, to get their stuff done. There were about 6 or 7 of us working that day, and one of the younger casuals working with me that day was a guy named Luke. Luke could get a bit starry eyed if any celebrities passed our area, and would be positively fizzing, if they came into our area. One Saturday, Luke spent around 20 minutes helping this one particular skinny balding guy, with a longish nose. When he had finished serving him, I sidled up to Luke and said "So ... Herb Elliott hey?". Lukes' eyes went big as his head darted everywhere looking, as he said "Where?!, Where?!". I cracked up. "Luke, you just spent 20 minutes serving him!". He was shattered, that he'd spent so long with the great man, and didn't even recognise him!
 

Philzsay

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#8
I cracked up. "Luke, you just spent 20 minutes serving him!". He was shattered, that he'd spent so long with the great man, and didn't even recognise him!
Nowhere near the same level of celebrity, well actually not really a celebrity but just a story of how I didn't know something about someone I had known for about ten years before finding out!

I've been playing indoor soccer since 2003 and the bloke who collected the money, would tell you what court you were on etc was an old retiree aged man named John. I would often chat to him as I was usually 15 minutes early. John loved his sport, but really loved his cricket, since he was a Kiwi I assumed that was why he loved it more than AFL. He would have the radio on listening, or on his phone watching, if there was any cricket paying in the UK or elsewhere during the nights.

I would often be chatting cricket to him, about the current Tests or ODI's being played, whether they were Aus/NZ/Eng etc. He knew his stuff, was always opinionated etc; and sometime I would be back chatting to him for half an hour or so after my game. I always assumed he was a massive fan.

After about ten years of chatting to him, he had to miss soccer for several months after a knee operation. One day I ask his temporary replacement how John was, and mention the current cricket game and made a comment along the lines of I wonder what John would have thought about as he would have had a strong opinion about it. This bloke then proceeds to tell me, "Did you know John played cricket for New Zealand?" I was like ***!

Turns out John Guy played 12 Tests for NZ, was a NZ selector for a while, and he was the guy who made the Excalibur bat for Lance Cairns. And all this time I was talking in depth cricket convo and analysis with him FOR A BLOODY DECADE I had just assumed he was a big fan!!!

Here is an article about him:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20575134/man-excalibur
 
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#9
So slightly different tack again but I think worth a mention in this thread.

As some of you know I am partial to running a competition or two. That started with a footy tipping comp that I started running in 2002 and is still going today (well not exactly but you know what I mean). I have a mate who is a very keen participant who lived in Abu Dhabi for many years and worked with 1980 Brownlow Medallist Kelvin Templeton and through my mate was a participant in my comp for a number of years. Sadly not any more however his daughter still participates.

Therefore I have the claim to fame of running an AFL footy tipping comp that had a Brownlow medallist as a participant.
 
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#10
Way back, somewhere in1995 Charlton Heston released his autobiography ‘In the Arena’. He came out to Australia for whatever reason and conducted a book signing at Myers in Bourke Street. I lined up for hours, he signed the book, shook his hand. Still have the book, a prized possession. Gez, I met Moses, Judah Ben Hur, Mark Antony, El Cid and Michelangelo! Don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
 
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#11
When I was a little kid, mum took my brother and I down to Kardinia park to watch the Cats train and get some autographs.
Hung around for hours after practice out the front with about 50 other people and ended up getting a bunch of signatures like Riccardi, MaGrath and Budda Hocking ect but no Gaz senior.

Wouldn't ya know it, Ablett and Johnny Barnes snuck out the back way into a side carpark but mum was checking the other exists and caught em dead to rights lol, so me, my brother and the kids of two other mums were the only ones to score Seniors autograph. You need to get up bloody early in the morning to try and get one over on my old lady.
 
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#12
Not sure if it's right with the theme, but given cricket seems to be on topic... back when I was playing okay cricket, I would bowl to the home/visiting teams before every Sydney Test, and the summer One-Day Series. (They'd pad out the nets with young first grade cricketers, to not overwork their own bowlers).

To me, in my teens / 20s, this was my idea of heaven, and got to spend hours bowling to every nation (other than Pakistan and West Indies who never toured).

Bowled to just about every big name of the era, Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting, Clarke, Pieterson, Dravid, Amla, Sangakkara, Strauss, Cook, Gibbs, Warner, Jayawardene, Hussey, you name it. Worked with the bowlers/coaches for hours. If anything I probably didn't appreciate it at the time!
 
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#13
Not sure if it's right with the theme, but given cricket seems to be on topic... back when I was playing okay cricket, I would bowl to the home/visiting teams before every Sydney Test, and the summer One-Day Series. (They'd pad out the nets with young first grade cricketers, to not overwork their own bowlers).

To me, in my teens / 20s, this was my idea of heaven, and got to spend hours bowling to every nation (other than Pakistan and West Indies who never toured).

Bowled to just about every big name of the era, Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting, Clarke, Pieterson, Dravid, Amla, Sangakkara, Strauss, Cook, Gibbs, Warner, Jayawardene, Hussey, you name it. Worked with the bowlers/coaches for hours. If anything I probably didn't appreciate it at the time!
Winner so far. (y)
 
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#14
Not sure if it's right with the theme, but given cricket seems to be on topic... back when I was playing okay cricket, I would bowl to the home/visiting teams before every Sydney Test, and the summer One-Day Series. (They'd pad out the nets with young first grade cricketers, to not overwork their own bowlers).

To me, in my teens / 20s, this was my idea of heaven, and got to spend hours bowling to every nation (other than Pakistan and West Indies who never toured).

Bowled to just about every big name of the era, Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting, Clarke, Pieterson, Dravid, Amla, Sangakkara, Strauss, Cook, Gibbs, Warner, Jayawardene, Hussey, you name it. Worked with the bowlers/coaches for hours. If anything I probably didn't appreciate it at the time!
Go on, tell us who you had the wood over!
 
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#16
Haha. Nicking off Sangakkara first ball was a good moment, but the highlight was probably getting through the ‘wall’ and taking Dravid’s off stump.

Amla probably the best bloke, along with KP and Ashwin.
Have a feeling I remember this story from somewhere. You didn’t happen to play for North Sydney by chance?
 
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#19
Played cricket as a youngster in Auckland. Got selected to trial for the regional under 19's. Got lifts after practice with Geoff Howarth who played for NZ as did his brother Hedley. The family had a fish business, so the lifts were in one of the firm's vans; the air was a bit wiffy.

Fast forward I am living in London, Geoff is playing for Surrey. Go down to the Oval one Sunday - 50 over game v Yorkshire) The front office are a bit sceptical, but Geoff turns up there between innings. Gets me into the Surrey members area. On site bookmaker (Ladbrokes) was Godfrey Evans. Nice guy. After the game Geoff meets me and we go down to the Nets Bar. Now I am partial to a gin or three and Geoff loved the stuff. Introduced me to a mate of his also called Geoff. Suname Boycott. He drank us under the table.

Monday, I could not even go to work. But it was the fourth day of the Surrey v Yorkshire county game. They played the first three days, then played the one dayer. Tuesday's Times recorded that Boycott made a 100 and it was his fastest century ever. There was no comment about Howarth's performance. I never asked.
 
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