In June 2015 Jeremy Biggin and his wife, Sue arranged to meet some friends, Diane and Andy Tasker, who lived locally, for lunch in The Packhorse in the Peak District village of Little Longstone. This was a regular meet once every six weeks or so. When they arrived on this sunny day the pub was unusually quiet.
They entered and there were just three people at a table in the window. Two ladies and a man. Jeremy stopped and stared at the man, whispering “You are, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am” was the reply. Jeremy left it at that and joined their friends in the top bar.
They said their ‘hello’s’ and then Jeremy said to Andy, “you will NEVER guess who is in the bar below” …. “Who?” he replied
“Only JPR!” … ”You’re kidding me!” said Andy.
Andy, a former 1st XV player for Sheffield, then went to have a look. He returned a few minutes later having had a good chat with JPR Williams [not many sportsmen are identifiable purely by their initials].
Later the rugby legend JPR came up to the bar to order drinks and they all engaged in some friendly banter – England v Wales 5 Nations, reminiscences of the way in which Wales murdered England in the 1970’s with that great team. Jeremy and Andy said how much they loathed being beaten by the Welsh, but reluctantly and inevitably admired their team – JPR in particular and also his part in the Lions’ Tours. He was in fact wearing his Lions’ jersey that day.
JPR’s next remark stunned them … “You know I could have played for England; my mother was born in Rochdale!” …” Now you tell us!” came the astonished reply.
Andy Tasker passed away in early January and Jeremy was sending photos to Andy’s partner, Diane. These included the photo of Andy with JPR – taken on that fateful day. Ironically the very next news he heard, within minutes, was that JPR had died. Jeremy said “it felt very spooky!”
Andy also captained Sheffield Collegiate Cricket 1st Team, taking them to the Yorkshire and Sheffield & District League titles. One of his team members being the future England captain, Michael Vaughan. Michael is not without warm praise for Andy’s captaincy, calling him‘the legend that is Andy Tasker’…
In Jeremy’s view, Two Legends met that day – 26 June 2015