Only a tenuous link to helicopters, but embarrassing nonetheless.
Some years ago, I was invited by friends living in Monaco to spend the Grand Prix weekend with them. Whilst on their balcony waiting for the race to start, my host said 'You must meet X, he flies helicopters' and I was introduced to a long-retired, but still famous, cricketer. After the usual heli small talk, I thought I ought to say something about cricket if only as a matter of courtesy. Problem: I know nothing about cricket, and have even less interest than knowledge. My few suitably complimentary comments about cricket in 'his day' having gone down well, I became more abitious - helped no doubt by the champagne that was flowing freely.
"What I don't understand is, England never seems to do very well, yet we drop an outstanding cricketer like David Gower just because he went off in a Tiger Moth and dropped some flour bombs during practice. It was only a bit of fun. Sometimes we Brits are far too stuffy."
I noticed our group went rather quiet, before the famous cricketer replied, "I'm not sure whether you're saying that to the right man. Or maybe you are?" before going on to give a very different point of view.
Well, how was I to know Ted Dexter was the Chairman of the selectors who dropped Gower!!
