A few years ago i went shopping at my local Tesco. Afterwards as i headed home i noticed a rather familiar face out of my periferal vision. On further inspection i recognised his unmistakable silvery hair & welsh accent off my tv. It was only Bryn Law, that football guy off Sky Sports. That avid Wrexham & Wales fan! There he was right there in front of rather excited eyes! He was with one of his young daughters. While reaching for my camera phone we made small talk. Hi mate, how ya doing, Its Bryn isnt it? i knowingly enquired. Yes,hello, how are you came a shy, almost suprised response. Great thanks pal. Do you mind if i get a quick photo? Of course, no problem. But whos gonna take it? With that i hastily look around, to see many faces young & old milling around the supermarket & car park. A little bit shy to ask a member of public, instead i look to his daughter Why dont you take it? I suggest, passing my mobile phone to her. With pic done 7 dusted, i say my big thanks & off i went again about my business. I never in a million years ever thought that the next time i met Bryn face to face, would be in far more solemn & unfortunate circumstances. The next occasion came early on the Monday morning after Gary Speed had committed suicide. I had watched Garys live interview with Gary McAllister on Football Focus only the afternoon before. Then i headed to Elland Road to watch Leeds v Barnsley derby with a pal. After a rather heavy night out in Leeds City Centre, i awoke on my sofa on Sunday to be met by the dreadful news of his passing via Sky Sports. I found a photo of Gary & myself together at Elland Road from 1991 & decided to post it to my twitter account. Within minutes i was contacted by the media, asking if id agree to appear live on a World Service tv documentary at BBC Leeds Studios that evening. The docu was called Remembering Gary Speed A celebration of his life & career, from many of those who got close to him & fans. I was asked to appear as i had met him a number of times at ER & socially I broke down live on telly, as my grief got the better of me. My appearance can be found from this link: https://youtube/watch?v=9jcji_SuFfM I decided that my long weekend off work would be spent in large part mourning the passing of one of my biggest & most dearest heroes. Gary Speed was one of very few players who looked up as a keen amateur player myself. A role model in every sense of the word. I just loved the guy & was a massive fan of he & Gordon Strachan during our title winning glory years in the early 1990s. So i made my way to Elland Road on the Monday morning after Garys death. A shrine was set up at Billy Bremner statue for fans & mourners to pay their respects to the great man. I took along a photo of us two together in 1991 & placed it on the massed shrine, along with a short personal message. I recorded my visit via this youtube video https://youtube/watch?v=MNbaVr9PiQk&list=UUNhHNq_2MpF31MBoW6... Within minutes i was again approached by the media. Calender News & the Yorkshire Evening Post seemed keen to get interviews & photos of me around the shrine & i reluctantly obliged. Then i heard a now familiar welsh voice calling me in the background. Hello Rod, will you go on camera for Gary? I looked up to see Bryn Law with an obvious pained, look on his face. We had indeed met again, only a matter of 2 months after our Tesco encounter. More suprisingly for me was that he actually knew my name. Of course Bryn & he set up camera crew around myself & pal Lee Parker. Our brief live Sky Sports News interview covered the times wed met Speedo, our on field memories & also of what a top bloke he was to every person he met. Afterwards i asked Bryn if he remembered meeting me outside Tesco. He did & seemed to remember it better than i did! Later i learned that he know my name as we had connections at the same Leeds football club. Apparently Bryn plays veterans football for Bardsey FC sometimes. This little village football club were the last team i played a full season for in 1998. I won 3 trophies & bagged 35 goals with them that year, so we had that in common all along!
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:49:24 +0000
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