The rugby pitch is certainly no place for a gentleman
They used to say rugby was a gentleman’s game, but that was until Gary Wheway came out of retirement after a wife-imposed exile of more than five years.
The ‘cuddly’ office host of spin-masters Danks Cockburn Public Relations was only two games back in the fold when he caused an almighty ‘ruckus’ during a Dudley Kingswinford 5ths game the other week.
Coming on for his usual thirty minutes when everyone else is knackered, the No 8 decided to throw his considerable frame around in the scrum leading to the Stourbridge XV prop suffering from concussion.
With no alternative the referee called for untested scrums and the younger, some would say more sprightly lads of Stourbridge, proceeded to ‘run’ their way to a famous draw.
Speaking to Bright after the game, Wheway was furious with the tactics.
“The guy was so concussed he was having a pint in the bar afterwards! I’m fuming ... pace, skill and an ability to run with the ball have no place in the game of rugby.
“It should be all about ‘hitting’, ‘pulling hair’, ‘biting’, you know the sort of thing.”
Gary, now 43, was indeed so incensed that he dragged the Stourbridge captain to one side and threatened an almighty battle when the teams met again the week after.
Fortunately for DK, the ‘business centre and storage supremo’ had picked up a rib injury and had to cry off from the rematch.
Good job really as they ran out comfortable 43-3 winners.
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Neil Mackay meets Neil Mackay.
One is managing director of Midlands-based Advantage Business Angels and the other works for Lloyds TSB Bank.
And they finally met up the other day when both were attending a KPMG event.
To make it even more confusing the ABA Neil Mackay used to work for Lloyds TSB and both are Neil D Mackay.
The ABA Mackay tells me: “When we were at the bank together we were forever getting each other’s messages.“I think he was delighted when I left, especially as I had got in first on the email system.
“While I was neil.mackay@lloydstsb.co.uk he was neil.mackay1@lloydstsb.co.uk and he hated that!”
The ABA Mackay, also both a chartered accountant and a cartered marketer, was once in the “Top 125 executives” in Lloyds TSB.
His counterpart is also something of a high flyer.
Yet, until recently, while they had communicated by phone and email, they had never actually met.
So, what did they say to each other when at last they did?
“Are you the real Neil Mackay?”
Well, I suppose it had to be.
