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Dennis Lillee and John Newcombe. I dreamed of opening the bowling for Australia, and winning Wimbledon. True, I achieved neither, but I did once get a very useful 2 wickets for 8 for the Knox Grammar School's Under14 C team, and I also once took a set off Julian Lovell in Fifth Form. And he went on to be AT LEAST one of the top ten tennis players of the Sixth Form at Knox Grammar.
All Black TERRY LINEEN, test cricketer BERT SUTCLIFFE and the world champion middle-distance runner PETER SNELL
From soccer it was Leeds and Juventus' 'Il Gigante Buono', Swansea born John Charles. From rugby, it was former Swansea, Wales and British Lion wing threequarter Dewi Bebb. By chance, we became work colleagues at HTV Wales in years to come. When I commentated on the final of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa in 1995, Dewi was directing back in Cardiff. At the end of transmission, he opened all the microphones and declared that was his finest hour in broadcasting. Thousands of miles away in Jo'burg I shed a tear. Nine months later he passed away. I cried.
Bay of Plenty sevens expert Gordon Tietjens takes his first NZ team to Fiji. They didn't win the tournament there but Tietjens stayed coach for 20-plus years
CALDER, FINLAY
Melrose, Stewart’s-Melville and Scotland
34 internationals for Scotland 1986–91
3 internationals for British Isles 1989
CALDER, JIM
Stewart’s Melville and Scotland
27 internationals for Scotland 1981–85
1 international for British Isles 1983
Twins from a family of four rugby-playing brothers from Edinburgh, Jim and Finlay Calder held a unique place in world rugby: between them they virtually occupied one position in the Scottish team for 10 seasons.
Jim Calder was first into the Scottish team, playing as flanker against France in 1981. From then until 1985 he was a first choice in 27 Scottish test sides, missing only one international right through until the disastrous Scottish season of 1984–85. He scored the vital try against France that clinched the Grand Slam win for Scotland in 1983–84.
Finlay Calder took over his brother’s position as flanker in the Scottish team. His internationals were played consecutively as well, apart from missing one test, because of injury, in 1988 and another in 1989. He announced his retirement after the Scottish tour of New Zealand in 1990 and missed the 1990–91 Five Nations series, but he was then lured out of retirement in time to be back in the Scottish team for the World Cup of 1991.
At one point the Calder brothers had played on the side of the scrum in 55 of the 59 internationals Scotland played from 1981–90. Both had taken part in a Scottish Grand Slam: Jim in 1984 and Finlay in 1990.
Finlay Calder was a Scottish captain in 1988–89 and a British Isles skipper as well. In 1989 he led the Lions to Australia in his usual rollicking good- humoured way – off the field, that is. On the field he was grim and vigorous. The 2–1 test series win was the first the Lions had had on tour for 16 years.
Although the Calder twins did not actually play a test match together they, along with their brother John, were all together in the Scotland party which toured Australia in 1982. The third brother John Calder, also a loose forward, was equal top try-scorer on that tour. He was never capped in a full international match.
In 1990 Finlay Calder was awarded the OBE for his services to Scottish and British rugby.
Which New Zealand sports broadcaster once described a tight tennis match as 'a Battle of Nutrition.'
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