I am a newbie and have really enjoyed reading this thread. I have a picture of G-AXNZ but can't upload at present as I don't have a hosting account.
I had one very small close quarters encounter with the Rothmans Team. In 1972 the team appeared at the opening of the Historic Aircraft Museum at Southend. The wind was terrible gusting to 40 knots but it was at least straight down the runway.
The display was based in the maintenance area near the museum and take offs, landings and display slots were fitted in around the arrival and departure of Carvairs and others. The display area was over the old Channel Airways maintenance hangar so there was little interference with normal airport operations. As a volunteer I was given various jobs that day including guarding a part scrapped Channel Airways Comet.
The Rothmans Stampes were parked behind one of the hangars for a bit of shelter but they were parked slightly crosswind and although they were tied down with the usual concrete filled oil drums one of the aircraft was lifting a wing. As I passed on my way to lunch. I heard a bang followed by a tearing noise from the Stampes and I found that the metal loop on the top of one of the oil drums had gone clean through the fabric under the wing of one Stampe.
I found Roy, the foreman of the group of ex-Channel Airways engineers who worked at the museum at that time and he checked that it was only fabric and not structural damage and sent me to get my pushbike and cycle across to our workshops for dope, pinking shears and fabric. We cut a round patch and doped it and showed the pilot who was quite happy with the repair. We also found more drums to tie down the others.
I got a bollocking from the museum managers secretary for leaving the Comet unguarded and she suggested I should go home immediately but Roy intervened and put me on ground handling for the Rothmans Team as a reward for my efforts.
We had two wingman for each aircraft. The instructions were to line the aircraft up on the centre line and run holding on to the wing until the pilot put his hand up and then get clear. I remember running like hell and was very relieved to see our Stampe sail off into the air. The one behind went wrong and nearly nosed over.
In the conditions the display was a credit to the team and as a 15 year old it was an unforgetable day for me.