The biggest cheer of the day at Headingley was for Giles Clarke—or at least, that’s probably how he’ll see it. In fact, the impromptu mid-afternoon roar was for Geoffrey Boycott, who was walking beside him round the Rugby Stand End. Now there’s a conversation to have been the third part of at one’s peril.
Both were on their way to the teatime presentation of caps symbolising Boycott’s and Ian Botham’s induction in the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame. Quite a conversation imaginable there too: ‘Remember the day I ran you out in Christchurch, Boycs? My, how we laughed.’
Neither Boycott nor Botham actually donned their new bonnets, and careful observation in the former’s case showed why: on the hatband of his rather spiffy boater, Boycott has had his autograph embroidered. That’s Sir Geoffrey, already the foundation member of his own one-man hall of fame.
It was a crowded tea break, for, not two minutes later, proceedings were enlivened by an appearance from Kiss*, who, as any fule kno, continue to be scandalously excluded from the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Was the ICC about to claim Peter, Paul, Gene and Ace as their own? Alas, they had merely won the npower fancy dress award. Twenty-four gold albums, 19 million records sold: what does a band have to do to impress the selectors?
* As I didn’t see the legendary Simmons tongue, it may actually have been four punters dressed as Kiss. If so, my compliments to them: they were very convincing.