Working at the FW World Cup I tried to bar a bemused Phil Saxena from the closed 4x track unitl I spotted his named pass. Also told Robbie Bourdon to get off the track during the DH finals.

Reminds me of my student days doing security on the Loughbourgh telivised athletics meet. Didn’t get to meet Sir Des or Sue but did see the producer run up to grab the sheet with NSF-TV slogan on it. Then told Dwayne Chambers that he wasn’t getting on the track unless he showed me his pass, and no grunting isn’t going to get you in either mate – lets see the pass, well done not that hard was it…
Did also meet Ben – My little pony – Challenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Challenger but not to speak to

Some more of the random climbers included Jerry Gore and an evening with Alan Hinks, one guy at the after dinner speach had it all lined up to ask him if climbing everest on O2 was like doing the TdF on a motorbike – he forgot that question. Good fun guy, sprained his ankle on a walk that morning so was chewing Advid and washing them down with Port 🙂 😐

He’s not famous yet but the son of two of our closest friends is straight out of drama school and is currently filming the new Dunkirk movie with Tom Hardy and Harry Styles, he’s tipped for big things in the future.

I didn’t have a conversation with him, but I did bump into Leonardo De Caprio this evening in LA! 8)

Leonardo pah I have you all beat. Was at Uni with Gonch from Grange Hill!!

Had a chat with Charles Dance over which sausages to buy in a deli the other week. Very early on a Saturday morning. Set the weekend up to be something surreal.

Jackie Stewart – chatted for about 30 minutes, partly briefing him on the event he was speaking at, and partly general stuff about Formula 1 etc.

Phil Read – for those of the older generation, a legendary motor bike racer. A mate of mine lived a couple of doors from him so we just went and knocked on his front door. Spent about an hour in his garage chatting and climbing around some of his racing bikes

Prince Charles – Mrs M worked in the garden at his house Highgrove for a while. Once a year he gave a big party for all staff where he came round and chatted to everyone. Talked to him for about 4 minutes before he was moved on to the next bunch

I went to a talk by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston a couple of years ago, sponsored by Benromach. The evening ended getting drunk on the whisky, whilst smoking cigars chatting to Sir R. Fascinating Bloke.

I was speaking to a mate at the weekend who had spoken to RKJ during the Round the Island Race.
RKJ: “get upwind or I’ll ram you”.
My mate: “It’d be an honour”.

Had lunch with Professor Heinz Wolff and was given a personal guided tour of his bio engineering research lab at Brunel. Very charming and dedicated man.

Oh – more of a spot really – I bumped into Alexei Sayle in Waitrose in Daventry once. He was pushing a trolly while absentmindedly reading the guardian.

I thought: Alexei Sayle? right on urban marxist comedian in a posh supermarket in rural Northants? Same shop frequented by Nigel Lawson and family?

Turned out he did indeed live in the area at the time.

Alexei sayle and wife outside pub in Soho , staring me out ..to be fair I probably started it !!! Loved the young ones

Alexei Sayle and wife in CoOp in Mytholmroyd.

Also…

I’ve met a load of bikey people along the years but the weekend spent with the Tomac family at one of the East Coast rounds of the US motocross series was pretty cool. Young Eli is quite the star, and John is just “Eli’s dad” to all the mx fans and usually gets asked to take photos of them with Eli.

Lovely family, very dedicated to their sports.

Geoff capes as a kid,

He lived in the village I grew up in. Drove big American cars and walked around with Grizzly Brown quite a bit.

Well since reading this thread this morning, I have met ZERO celebs.

Went out for a ride today and three came along at once…. bit like buses 🙂

Andrew Charlie Ruddock (Heavyweight Boxer)
Peter Capaldi
Pearl Mackie

[url=https://flic.kr/p/LJUXvr]Dr Who 2016 – Kings Weston House, Bristol[/url] by SGMTB, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/LBX7xD]Dr Who 2016 – Kings Weston House, Bristol[/url] by SGMTB, on Flickr

and an unknown …

[url=https://flic.kr/p/LJUXbt]Dr Who 2016 – Kings Weston House, Bristol[/url] by SGMTB, on Flickr

^^^ Reminds of a friend of Mrs Pondo’s who once met Hugh Grant and Jamie Redknapp. She went “ooo, can I have a photo?” They said yes so now she has a picture of her with Jamie Redknapp that was taken by Hugh Grant. 🙂

😆

I used to get a lift to school with George Cole’s son, occasionally George would be doing the driving. Was never that talkative though.

My wife’s school friend works in Richmond Park for the Royal parks, and has a tied house in the park itself behind a high fence and a security gate. He had a barbecue party for his wife’s 40th earlier this summer; my wife and I had taken the dog out into the park proper for a run about and when we got back a man was boosting a young lady up at the fence so they could see what the music was about. When they saw us they quickly got down and walked off, but not fast enough that my wife and I both did that double take thing. Yep, Mick Jagger was trying to get over the fence into a party we were invited to rather than the other way round!

I regularly had conversations with (OK, I regularly had to shout at) half of the Chemical Brothers. Mainly over lunchroom misdemeanours as I was his lunch prefect at school.

Lastly, I regularly had conversations with a girl I was at Uni with, who was previously a school mate of one of my best Uni mates. So when I went to visit him in the holidays, she often would come out drinking with us. One particular night, I was getting on very well with her, had had my hands up her top on the night bus, and was looking forward to sealing the deal once we got back to my mate’s place. Except when we got there she threw up on his carpet and then fell asleep in the garden, and given I’m not a premiership footballer felt that a certain degree of consent was missing. So she never met my Honourable Member, which is a clue to her future career path.

So she never met my Honourable Member, which is a clue to her future career path.

Ann Widdecombe? That could have been her big night.

Reminds of a friend of Mrs Pondo’s who once met Hugh Grant and Jamie Redknapp. She went “ooo, can I have a photo?” They said yes so now she has a picture of her with Jamie Redknapp that was taken by Hugh Grant.

😆

my wife worked on a film in which the original male lead (ok, the voice thereof) was replaced by Hugh Grant, because the studio felt he had more star power abroad etc etc.

The wife thought the original lead was much better, and vowed that if she ever saw Hugh Grant she would kick him in the shins.

Fast forward a year or 2, and guess who’s at the premiere? Besides us obviously. Only Mr Grant himself! And did my dear wife honour her vow? Did she kick him in the shins? Even as I dug her in the ribs and told her she might always regret it if she didn’t? 😡

I used to speak regulaurly with a Junco of the Juncos that own Hello magazine.

I wrote a comedy film script and showed it to Gene Wilder.

He died laughing.