Alastair McGillivray and Gayt Paree - 1960

By way of a taster, here's a snippet of Alastair's vault of anecdotes - more to follow we hope..
This man was chugging back the wine as quickly as possible er... I mean leading players in France before most of you were born (I was five - bloody hell!)

"Plastered in Paris" was an expression which, I for one have used on occasions to describe our visits there, so I would certainly give it the thumbs up as a title.

"My memory only goes back to 1960, which was my first tour, but I do have some anecdotes from previous tours, when OGs played Neuilly, before M.Allias & pals moved on to build Plessis-R, and formed the RFC Du Batiment thereof.

 

Most of my direct comrades in arms, if not on legs, are still around the globe somewhere, although some of the 1960 team, alas are no longer. Bob Silsby was the latest casualty, and Paul Cook, Ken Sindell, Ted Blundell and the incomparable Nobby Clarke, have all gone to the great plasterboard ceiling in the sky, together with so many other camp followers and walking wounded such as Bob Buckland.

 

As for my French, the Norman twins would always remind me of my response to the Sunday lunch toast ("Vive la Reine") to which I came back with "et Vive la President!" Today, Madame Royale might have fitted in to both offices, but in those days, De Gaulle, like Queen Victoria, would not have been amused.

 

After that, I tried to make amends by offering round the slices of roast pork on the table, including an invitation to a good looking girl, "Voulez vous (aimez) plus de couchon?" I suspect she thought I was offering myself to her, which was not far from the truth.

 

I'm not at all familiar with blogs, so let me know what you would like in the way of any anecdotes, and I will try to circulate them, starting with this mailing."

Cheers for now,

Alastair


Thank you. See - that was easy! Here's the match day programme. For information, Alastair was the 1960s equivalent of Sebastien Chabal  - in case you want to 'draw' in your mind an imaginary picture of him...he looks more or less the same today...