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Anorak News | Top five celebrity flight faux pas: Boon, Henson, Gallagher, NY Mets, Depardieu and Three Lions

Top five celebrity flight faux pas: Boon, Henson, Gallagher, NY Mets, Depardieu and Three Lions

by | 4th, April 2012
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3. Three Lions, two TV sets and a table

England’s tour of South-East Asia was a team-bonding exercise in the old-fashioned sense of the phrase. Tony Adams was team captain at the time, and the team doctor declared: ‘You have to have social drinking. They talk about soccer together, and meanwhile they drink a couple of pints.’ The trip became notorious for the ‘Dentist’s Chair’ drinking game in a Hong Kong nightclub (immortalised in Gazza’s goal celebration) so few remember the carnage of the return flight home, when Terry Venables and the FA party sat downstairs, leaving the youngsters to play above. Paul Gascoigne celebrated his birthday in style, performing a series of kung-fu style air kicks. Two TVs and a table were just some of the items on the receiving end, with around five grand’s worth of damage done in all. And five grand was worth something in them days, you know.

Cathay Pacific airport manager Tim Lillywhite described the damage to the TV screens as ‘nothing short of vandalism’. A rare occasion when England didn’t fall short abroad.

 

2. Baseball cards

 

Drugs, cigarettes and booze were all part of the training regime for the bad boys of baseball. In 1986, the New York Mets could usually be found drinking with fans at Finn MacCool’s bar, but in between they drank from a beer fridge in their locker room. Their finest hour came on a flight to New York from Houston after qualifying for the World Series (which they went on to win). Some were drunk on boarding the plane, and the rest soon caught up. Before long, celebration cake coated the walls, seats were smashed to pieces, beer-can baseball was played in the aisles while others ‘skied’ by strapping steaks top their feet. Fights broke out between players, and the waiting crowd at New York was stunned by the their physical appearance when they eventually staggered off the plane. At which point Daryl Strawberry rounded things off nicely by pouring champagne over the mayor’s head. As Keith Hernandez famously said: ‘You don’t win a World Series drinking milk.’

 

 

1. David Boon: 52 not out

Last, but by no means least, ‘Boony’. The Australian Test cricketer is famous for his big-hitting 100s, but his legendary status rests on another score: 52. That was the number of ‘tinnies’ he put away on the plane from Australia to England en route to the 1989 Ashes series. The record still stands, despite erroneous reports that England rugby player Mike Tindell had broken it. (Tindell’s attempt, according to team mates, ended in peaceful sleep over Italy, although he was reportedly not far off the target.)

 

Boon’s epic triumph was achieved with no fuss – those were the days when holding your drink meant keeping control. OK, they weren’t massive cans, and it was only Australian beer, but respect is due nonetheless.

Those were also the days when Qantas staff colluded in such feats by keeping score, and Indeed, the captain of the plane congratulated Boon and invited him to fly the plane for a few minutes. The first part of that sentence is actually true. On arrival, Boon survived a press conference, had a few more beers at a reception, and slept for 36 hours, missing two training sessions. He was fined $5,000 by the team manager, but made considerably more from capitalizing on his exploits with beer sponsorship…



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Posted: 4th, April 2012 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink