Lord Ian Botham has led the cricketing tributes to a ‘remarkable woman’ as the game remembers the Queen.
Beefy was one of a number of former England captains to have met and spent time with her during one of her 26 visits to Lord’s to meet the teams on the outfield and watch some play as the only woman allowed into the pavilion during a match until 1999.
And it was his great fortune that she attended his debut match against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1977, before he took on the duties as captain alongside her in the 1981 Ashes series. Her majesty also attended the Centenary Test in Melbourne in 1977, and handed out numerous honours to players from across the world, once travelling to Barbados to knight Sir Garfield Sobers in 1975.
Sir Beefy received the same honour from the Queen in 2007 for his services to charity and to cricket and the life peer admitted she showed great interest in his charity work raising millions through his walks for leukaemia.
“It was a very sad day on Thursday to learn of the Queen’s passing,” said Lord Botham. “We had a wine tasting event and it just knocked the stuffing out of everyone.
“She was a remarkable woman and one of the two most fantastic people I have ever met in my life, the other being Nelson Mandela. Both of them are the very finest examples of human beings there have been and I’m so grateful to have had the chance to meet them.
“The Queen spoke to me for quite some time during my investiture and it was mainly about the charity work. It was a very special day. Any time you met the Queen was a special moment and I was lucky enough that I first met her on my debut which made everything that extra bit special. It was a moment that passed by very quickly, but one that I will never forget. I was walking on air after that.”
Back in 1977 it was Mike Brearley who was captain and doing the introductions in Nottingham. And Brearley recalls just how at ease the Queen managed to make him feel, allaying any fear that he might get a name or two wrong.
“There is a feeling that you might forget the name of your best friend in a formal situation with whom someone feels a little bit in awe,” said Brearley. "But she was very gracious, dignified and friendly. And she knew what was going on in the match and was well informed.
“Many of the players were excited by the opportunity to meet her, although when I once described it as my fortune to introduce her to the players, I was reminded in a letter from EW Swanton that ‘surely Michael, even in this day and age it was the players who were introduced to Her Majesty.’ and of course he was right!”
It was in Melbourne where Aussie bowler Dennis Lillee famously asked the Queen for her autograph when she met the teams, which wasn’t provided at the time, but was sent to Lillee at a later date.
And former England captain David Gower also recalls meeting her Majesty overseas much to her surprise, but as on other occasions her natural warmth shone through.
“I had arrived in Barbados and at the airport was told that I had been invited to a dinner aboard the Royal yacht Britannia with the Queen and Prince Phillip,” said Gower. "I had no idea they were visiting at the same time, so I hastily arranged the appropriate evening wear and joined the great and the good of Barbados on board the ship.
“When Her Majesty got to me, she said: ‘Oh hello! What are you doing here?!” to which I reassured her I had been invited, but it was also nice to be recognised having met her on a few previous occasions.
“I can also remember a game against the South Africans for the Earl of Carnarvon XI in 1994 at Highclere when the Queen was sat in a marquee watching the game and I was invited to join her. I had on a new pair of bollé sunglasses that she was quite taken with and curious about and asked to try them on, so I said ‘of course ma’am’ and gave them to her. She enjoyed trying them out and she did give them back, so we shared the sunglasses that day.
“What she has done throughout her life of service to the country has been magnificent and it is a sad time now that she is no longer with us.”
