| The Cheeky Cricketers Who Stumped The Queen |
|
|
|
| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Sunday, 07 January 2007 | |
|
Page 2 of 4 These were halcyon days for the House of Windsor, the press continuing to show some restraint in their reporting of matters royal, whilst society as a whole respected the institution of monarchy. In other words, this was still a time when everybody, whomever they may be, were expected to mind their P's and Q's on meeting the Queen. In fact, the notoriously formal (some would say "stuffy") cricketing officials ordered the players to say little more than: "Pleased to meet you, Ma'am."  Perhaps it was because of the stuffiness of the orders from above that the Queen unexpectedly heard herself being openly admired by one of the Australian players.As the 55-year-old monarch shook hands with each of the players, including such influential stars as Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman, their bowling colleague Rodney Hogg — a feisty character who had a reputation for speaking his mind — voiced a thought which less verbal souls would have opted to keep silent. Watching the Queen pass by after she shook his hand, the cricketer piped up far too loudly: "Nice legs for an old Sheila" (in fact, the story goes that the comment was a little more colourful than this, one observer claiming he actually said the Queen had "bloody good legs for a Pommie Sheila"). Not that the Queen was nonplussed, for she'd enjoyed an earlier encounter with the Australian cricket team during which she was asked to break one of her cardinal rules. 
Never one to toe the line, instead of simply shaking hands with the visiting monarch, fast bowler Dennis Lillee held out a piece of paper and a pen, so determined was he to secure her autograph. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
