One day in rural France, in 2003, Australian cricketer, fast bowler and legend, Dennis Lillee, AM, MBE came into my restaurant. It was a Sunday, the sun was shining and he sat at a table in the garden with a couple of friends. Together with Jeff Thomson, the Thomson and Lillee partnership terrorised English batsmen during the 1970/80s.

"Lillee and Thomson were probably, as a pair, the fastest and most lethal opening pair in Australia’s history." Don Bradman.

I played cricket but I wasn't the sports biggest fan although in 1981 on my one and only test match, I did witness from the stands at Old Trafford, Ian Brexit Botham scoring 118 runs helped by Dennis Lillee catching him on the boundary line only for the momentum to make Lillee take a step backwards and over the line. A six to Botham!

And on this day I was fiddling about behind the bar when a diner came scampering across the dining room to say that Dennis Lillee was sitting in my garden! I had a peak through the window and he did look like Dennis Lillee. I went about my business until a doppelganger walked into the restaurant and up to the bar. I remember saying, if you are not Dennis Lillee then you could be his double. He replied that he indeed was that man, and what a man he turned out to be.

I told him that I was at Old Trafford in 1981 and witnessed his effort to help Botham reach his century. He remembered it well and relayed a tale or two including him being dispatched to the boundary by his captain where he had to endure much banter from the English crowd. The diner who originally spotted Dennis came over and asked him to shake the hand of his grandson, who would be told when he was old enough to understand that he had shaken the hand of a great sportsman. He took time to chat with the grandson and us and was generous with his time and came across as a fine and gentle man, although I doubt that the opposition batsmen would see him that way.

I was a little disappointed to learn that he was running a dry cleaning business.