Rugby to Newcastle

Attended a charity dinner at Claridges last night in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Liam Botham's Testimonial Year. The Q&A session with Doddie Weir, Keith Wood, Jason Leonard, Ieuan Evans and Ian Botham, conducted by Will Greenwood, was one of the best I'd heard recently. Ian said that the Cricket World Cup was wide open, but if he were to take a bet, he'd put a little money on Sri Lanka. Doddie Weir and Keith Wood were pretty fierce about Martin Johnson and his ethics on the field, which Jason said were part of him being the best captain in the business. Mr Leonard on the other hand - witty and charming as ever - did not extend that wit and charm to Sir Clive Woodward, and several references were made to a Daily Mail article of the previous day, which I hadn't read.

Bob 'The Cat' Bevan was our after dinner speaker and on his usual top form, and the auction raised £65,000. One of the most interesting items was a pair of return flights to Newcastle for a kicking masterclass with Jonny Wilkinson at the Newcastle Falcons training ground and then lunch with Jonny and Liam. Some wag shot up and said "I'll pay 500 quid Jeff, not to go to Newcastle." I of course fined him £500 and asked if there were any others in the audience who would pay this amount not to go to Newcastle - there were seven more responses, raising £4,000 - and a further £8,000 was raised for the actual prize, bringing the total to £12,000 for this item alone.