Geoff Lunn | Comet 150 | Homepage - Surrey Comet

My days at Knapp, Drewett/Surrey Comet were from 1961-67.

Since this is the time for looking back over 150 years of Surrey Comets, you might like to check-out the editions from August/September 1964. If my memory serves me well one of them carried on its front page a photo of Hollywood actor Steve McQueen outside Commerfords Motors of Thames Ditton. Many years on I'd convinced myself I must have dreamt it, I mean, Steve McQueen in Thames Ditton! Then a few months ago I spotted a biography of the actor and yes there it was. It stated that in September 1964 he was a member of an American team that took part in a scrambling event in East Germany, having first stopped off in the UK to collect their customised bikes.

Also Easter 1960, I attended a charity football match at the Decca Sports Ground, Tolworth. One of the players in the "Showbiz XI" team caught my attention. Partly because he had very hairy legs, mainly because he was the best on the pitch. I checked his shirt number against the programme (which I kept for some years) and it said Sean Connery. Although it was pre Bond, just, I knew the name, having seen him the previous year in a Walt Disney film called Dowley O'Gill and The Little People. Did I wonder, the Comet carry a report, photo, event?

Geoff Lunn
Egmnont Avenue
Tolworth