Photography © David Betteridge
Following the inspirational success of The Bunbury’s 21st Anniversary night at Grosvenor House 2007, the raison d’etre for this year’s celebration was in honour of the knighthood of Dr David English’s soul mate and Bunbury, Sir Ian Botham. The gala evening proved to be a stellar occasion, attended by around 1,200 and supported by numerous personalities from the worlds of sport and entertainment.
Having arrived in good time for the champagne reception, I decided to take up residence by the entrance of Aldford Suite as some terrific characters and long- term Bunbury advocates began to arrive. The guest list included Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Sir Viv Richards, Allan Lamb, Phil Tufnell, Rory Bremner, Eric Clapton and Jeffrey Archer. Bill Wyman was introducing the debutante Bunbury Charlie Watts to David English’s legendary cricket club- and what a tremendous occasion to have selected for Charlie’s induction!
Bill was certainly his usual candid and friendly self in conversation, as David English oscillated between chats with Marie, Ian Botham’s mother, Viv Richard and the many organisers, philanthropists and sponsors that comprise a supportive team in realising the surreal pro-celebrity cricket club. Our role model for the night was Sir Ian Botham, whose work as a sportsman, charity worker and icon of our times proved paramount to this honorary evening.
Sir Ian Botham has been voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by his fans. His test career spanned some fifteen years, in which he played in 102 matches, taking 383 wickets, holding 120 catches. His first-class career began in Somerset in 1974 and he subsequently played for Worcester, Queensland and Durham. Having made his debut for England in 1977, he played in 102 tests, including 12 as captain in 1980-81.
Ian Botham’s contribution to society is however, not exclusive to his role as an inspirational ambassador in the field of cricket, but rather his crucial charity raising efforts for Leukaemia Research, having generated more than ten million pounds for the charity since his first 900 mile hike from John O’Groats to Land’s End in 1985. It was in the context of this remarkable ‘C.V,’ that his contemporaries and peers gathered to lay tribute to his continuing life force and works at Grosvenor House Hotel on 8th May. The night represented a journey’s end for Ian in his charismatic career, often thwarted at significant points by negative publicity, sometimes with little foundation, his mercurial journey through life has finally culminated in the just acknowledgement of his knighthood in October 2007.
The honorary evening was punctuated with individualised anecdotes and speeches from Ian’s most significant colleagues including Sir Viv Richards, David Gower and Allan Lamb. Their contributions reflected not only reminiscences of classic sporting moments with ‘Beefy’, but a large contingent of personal drama and humour regarding memorable nights during Ian’s younger years, spent in his charismatic and irrepressible company!
Touching screenings from beneficiaries the English School’s Cricket Association, Leukaemia Research and the Crossroads Centre, Antigua were shown on a large projector. The footage conveyed not only gratitude at the continuing support being offered by Ian and The Bunburys, but some emotional sequences especially in respect to the testimonies of Leukaemia Research patients. During the course of Ian’s tireless campaign for improvements in treatment for Leukaemia, the prospects for recovery have become statistically remarkably improved over time from 20% to around 80% and the filmed excerpts certainly bore witness to this.
Other significant speakers on stage during the evening included Bill Wyman, who described Charlie Watt’s love of Lords and his own long-term involvement with the Bunbury cricket club, spurred on by his fascination of the game from an early age. Bill reminisced on early Bunbury games spent in the company of the likes of Phil Collins and Dennis Waterman with a host of his cricketing heroes from Dennis Lillee, Brian Lara and Brian Close to Ian Botham.
The undoubted highlight of Bill’s cricketing career with the Bunburys was recounted as his hat trick of wickets at the Oval in 1995 (a memorable achievement I myself witnessed). Hosts Rory Bremner and Mark Nicholas also proved to be articulate orators for the occasion, ably co-ordinating the toasts and emotional tributes. Jeffrey Archer loquaciously moved the evening forward toward the photographic session, offering the audience the opportunity of posing as ‘Captain of the team’ with all the sporting and entertainment celebrities present, with the money going to charity.
The photography was superseded by the ongoing impressive ‘silent auction’, comprising some tremendous lots. The numerous spoils available to bidders included an invitation to ‘take on the Bunburys’ at a venue of their choice. The winner received the honour of taking on the Bunburys during the 2009 season and will also receive an umpire, scorer and photographer for the day, with proceeds going to a charity of their choosing.
An especially fruitful lot in the earlier not so ‘silent’ component of the auction proved to be the ‘Daily Mirror Editor’ offer, donated by Richard Wallace, Daily Mirror Editor- Piers Morgan was the highest bidder and ironically will subsequently return to The Mirror for a day in the Editor’s chair! A further auction highlight was that of a Crossroads Stratocaster Limited Edition guitar, which is one of three owned by Eric Clapton, signed and personally inscribed by him. The guitar raised £45,000 and the sum total of the monies raised by the evening’s auction was an impressive £206,000.
Our finale speech came fittingly enough from Dr. David English. David’s friendship with Ian Botham has been encapsulated by Ian in both his autobiography ‘Head On’ Ebury Press 2007 and also in the contribution he made to David’s second autobiography, ‘Confessions Of A Dedicated Englishman’ Pan Macmillan 2006. David’s now infamous exploits in assisting Ian with his Leukaemia Research charity walking were at the fore of these accounts and indeed to David’s witty honorary speech- the occasion in question was a trip across the Alps that David undertook in the company of Ian Botham and Eric Clapton. Each day David had in reality been hitching lifts, whilst offering moral support to Ian and the team on camera- thus Ian had his revenge when they entered Turin, initiating a suggestion that David rode one of the accompanying elephants, to which David obliged and subsequently sat on the fore of the elephant’s backbone; a painful comeuppance to bear!
David has also MC’d almost two hundred of Ian’s shows around the world including ‘An Evening With Beefy’ and ‘The King and I’ with Viv Richards as ‘the King’. Ian also credits David for having introduced him to Eric Clapton in 1986 when Eric was in need of a tie to enter the Lords ground, and ‘Beefy’ graciously provided him with his England one- both Eric and Ian participated in the early EC X1 games from the Bunbury projects inception in 1987 at Ripley School. Without a doubt it is the initiative and eccentric genius of David English that has facilitated many remarkable collaborations and spirited anecdotes over the years.
David simply characterises Ian Botham as a ‘winner’ whose enormous sense of self-belief has propelled him through life. In his testimonial passage to Ian in the accompanying brochure for The Bunbury’s tribute, David surmises succinctly that Ian will go down as a supreme cricketing hero of any age, “He is a person of the people who tackles life like the game he played, with enormous gusto and the sole desire to entertain, have fun and to help those less fortunate. I have been by his side through colossal adventures by day merging into a thousand lost nights. I have accompanied him on most of his great charity walks, sometimes in the back of a taxi, other times on top of an elephant and seen him raise over ten million for Leukaemia Research. I’ve seen blood seep through the lace-holes of his trainers… I am honoured to stage our Bunbury tribute along with my admirable partner Mr Naynesh Desai, to Sir ‘Loin’ Beefy and his lovely lady Kath in the presence of some of his greatest friends from around the world.” This effusive tribute from David English summarises the sentiments of the Grosvenor House honouree evening beautifully!
To close the night in suitable style, Ian’s esteemed friend and companion Eric Clapton kindly obliged by performing a live set just before the strike of midnight for the unique assembled audience. Eric took to the stage to deliver a selective, predominantly acoustic ‘unplugged’ blues set, in the company of members of his current touring band. EC performed with Pino Palladino on bass, Ian Thomas on drums, with Sharon White & Michelle John delivering backing vocals.
EC’s set list transformed featured sober classics from albums ‘Unplugged’ and ‘From The Cradle’ to a different level, with Pino and Eric’s musical intuition and technical acumen being faultless throughout the hour- long set. Notable new additions explored by Clapton in his repertoire were Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Rockin’ Chair’ and Wilson Pickett’s ‘Don’t Knock My Love’. The reassurance of familiar classics, ‘Wonderful Tonight’, ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Crossroads’ truly brought the house alight as Eric declared “Bless you Beefy” to close the tributes to Ian. The sincerity of EC’s seated acoustic prowess on numbers including ‘Motherless Child’ and ‘Running On Faith’ added to the ambience of the occasion and brought the Bunbury’s tribute full circle. The occasion offered a truly efficacious integration of the worlds of music and sport to achieve a greater good in honouring Sir Ian Botham’s seminal talents.
Many thanks go to Dr. David English, the team at Fireball Management, organiser Naynesh Desai, plus all significant contributors and sponsors who created this wonderful evening at Grosvenor House Hotel, celebrating ‘The Greatest Knight of Them All’. May there be many more spectacular nights to come!
Stephanie Lynne Thorburn. June 2008
