WHEN a sporting legend tells an audience of more than 500 people that Arnold Schwarzenegger should play me in a Hollywood blockbuster film then that means one of two things.
Either the Pumping Iron and Terminator beefcake is the spitting image of me.
Or I’ve been telling my story about interviewing Arnie once too often.
You know what the answer is.
And I know that my movie doppelganger is more likely to be Schwarzenegger’s Twins co-star Danny DeVito.
But I do appreciate Kevin making the case.
The rugby league legend and charity fundraising titan was on stage taking questions from the audience at the Yorkshire Property Charity Lunch at the Leeds first direct Arena last Friday.
After a question and answer session with his former team mate Barrie McDermott, Kevin was asked who would play him in a movie.
Barrie quickly suggested that he himself would be played by George Clooney and after much thought Kevin said he wouldn’t mind if he was played by Tom Hardy.
It was a good call: both have those chiselled features, granite jaws and piercing eyes.
“But we know David Parkin should be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger!” said the man fondly known as “Sir Kev” with a grin.
As compere of the 21st annual Yorkshire Property Charity Lunch I’d opened the event with a preamble explaining who I was.
And after telling my story about my claim to fame as being the first British journalist to interview Arnie after he became Governor of California I did admit that I might be accused of going on about it a bit.
But when you had the kind of experiences I had in my journalism career, then you would do too.
The only award I ever won was presented to me at a journalism awards ceremony at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United.
I don’t need to tell you that for a newspaper based in Leeds that’s the last place you want to go.
Sadly that wasn’t the worst of it.
My award was presented to me by Stuart Hall, the since disgraced host of TV show It’s a Knockout.
And while Kevin Sinfield was presented with his CBE by Prince William and was a guest at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding at Windsor Castle, my royal experiences are not ones I look back on fondly.
I once interviewed Prince Andrew…lovely man…and I had dinner on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with the man who sucked Fergie’s toes.
So you can see why I cling onto my Arnie story.
The audience at the property lunch were in good spirits and there for a good time but the room was silent as Kevin Sinfield recounted some of the experiences of his record-breaking career in rugby league, transition to rugby union and more recently his efforts to raise money for motor neurone disease with a series of gruelling charity runs across the length and breadth of Britain.
These of course were inspired by Rob Burrow, Kevin Sinfield and Barrie McDermott’s former team mate who had MND and died last year aged just 41.
Kevin closed his Q&A session talking about why Rob had so inspired him to raise so much money, remembering his team mate’s warm smile, even when Kevin went to see him in hospital for the final time, the day before he passed away.
Even now, over a year later, Kevin gets emotional about the memory and had a tear in his eye has he told the story, having to stop to compose himself at one point.
Kevin’s manager Mick Speight, who I was sitting next to, told me he hadn’t seen Kevin that upset before during a national series of speaking events following the launch of his bestselling autobiography The Extra Mile.
Perhaps it was being back in Leeds, being back at Leeds Arena where Kevin and Rob had celebrated the Leeds Rhinos winning the historic treble in 2015.
Whatever the reason, Kevin’s heartfelt words and emotion moved many to tears last Friday and as I went up on stage to thank him, I wiped away a tear too.
His sporting achievements are impressive, but after watching a film showing the seemingly superhuman effort he puts into his incredible fundraising runs, I felt honoured to be sharing a stage with him.
The whole occasion was a good humoured fun occasion, really well organised by the chair of the Yorkshire Property Charitable Trust Craig Burrow and his fellow committee members who raised over £50,000 for the Candlelighters charity.
Lisa Turton and her team at Leeds Arena did a great job as always and it was really nice to be working again with Ann Seddon and Jordan Hall and their new colleagues at Sterling Event Group.
The event was a who’s who of the top players in the Yorkshire property market, many of whom had been playing and supporting football and netball matches played that morning between professionals and agents.
Event founder Jonny Phillips of Sheriff Consulting did a hilarious turn on stage handing out awards to the team captains and players and Carl Wright, managing director of property group Jack Lunn was a superb roving reporter giving me updates from the floor on who was bidding in the ‘not so’ silent auction.
The main auction was brilliantly handled by James Pank of Auction House, a man so popular that it didn’t take much encouragement for the audience to join in with my chant: “When I say auction, you say…Pank!”
James even successfully bid for one of the auction lots.
So if he invites you for a day’s sailing on the south coast, you have been warned.
It was lovely to see Chloe Conroy of Hull-based property business Wykeland again.
I met Chloe after she won the property charity singing contest The Crypt Factor in June and she returned to Leeds to sing her winning song, Lost Without You.
I did a brief Q&A with Chloe before she sang and she told the audience that she writes her own songs.
I was going to ask her if winning Crypt Factor had changed her life, but she’s still stuck working for Dominic Gibbons at Wykeland so I think the answer would have been no.
I’m sure he’ll get me back for that at some point soon.
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FAREWELL then RLJ.
I recently received the news that my former Western Mail colleague Robert Llewellyn-Jones has died aged 80.
I read a superb and warm tribute to him by another former colleague, the business editor of Media Wales, Sion Barry and the memories of RLJ came flooding back.
If you were going to create a character like Robert Llewellyn-Jones nobody would believe you because they wouldn’t think that a person with so many achievements and so much personality could exist.
And given that his career in journalism started late – after Oxford-educated Robert had spent more than a quarter of a century teaching English at a comprehensive school in the steel town of Port Talbot.
With a voice like Richard Burton, immaculately dressed with pocket square perfectly puffed and tie knotted with aplomb, Robert certainly had presence but his intelligence, sharp wit, wealth of stories and warm sense of humour meant he became a respected stalwart of the Welsh business community after he took a role at the Western Mail.
That’s where I worked alongside him in the days when business journalism involved long lunches and meetings in pubs (I still do all that, just without the journalism) and Robert had an incredible network of contacts at the highest level.
He undertook his teacher training with Welsh rugby legend the late Barry John at Trinity College Carmarthen in the 1960s.
When Barry came into the office to pen his Wales on Sunday column, he always came for a chat with his old friend.
Once after what I can only assume was a long session in the pub, Barry John sneaked up behind Robert who was at his computer typing up an interview with a senior business figure in Wales, and put his hands over RLJ’s eyes and shouted: “Guess who?!”
Robert’s reply – “Barry, dear boy, you really are a character!” – was priceless, chiding the man many say was one of the greatest rugby players to ever take to the field.
Sion Barry remembers: “If there had been an Olympic sport for attending events, Robert – who also went by the moniker Mr Network and hosted his own WalesOnline podcast describing, with great charm, the latest tales from the Welsh business networking circuit – would have been a gold medallist.
“It was often joked about in the Western Mail office that Robert, who always took it in good humour, covered more metres during a Welsh international at the Millennium/Principality Stadium – going from one corporate hospitality box to the next – than the entire Welsh team managed on the pitch below.
“On one official visit of several days’ duration by the then Prince Charles to his Welsh residence, Llwynywermod, he managed to appear on the official reception guest list not once but twice – prompting the now monarch to smile, point at him, and remark: “Back again.”
When I became London Editor of the Western Mail Robert would often invite me to Old Deer Park in Richmond to watch London Welsh play rugby.
He would introduce me to rugby greats such as John Dawes and John Taylor.
It was the boardroom at Old Deer Park where I tasted foie gras for the first time, proffered by a wealthy Welsh entrepreneur who knew Robert well.
Robert often quoted the famous Dylan Thomas line of “do not go gentle into that good night” and RLJ definitely didn’t do that.
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I WENT to a surprise party for Stuart Clarke MBE last night.
The founder of the Leeds Digital Festival is stepping down as the director of the event after 10 years and will become chair.
His wife Claire organised a surprise party at Bruntwood’s West Village offices and the great and good of the Leeds tech and digital community gathered to wish Stuart well.
It was nice to bump into former Leeds City Council CEO Tom Riordan who is now doing great things as a civil servant high up in the NHS.
Tom gave a lovely speech and both of us agreed we were keeping standards high in our Michelsberg suits amidst a sea of trainers, jeans and shackets.
I’ve been critical of Tom in this blog before but it is a measure of the man that he always greets me with warmth and good humour and never holds a grudge or takes offence.
He’s one of life’s good operators and, more importantly, good people.
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I DID a heads and tails game at last weeks Yorkshire Property Charity Lunch and given that law firm Walker Morris were one of the sponsors I asked this question of the audience:
The first direct Leeds Arena has hosted shows by many of the world’s greatest performers including Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Bob Dylan.
When I was invited as a guest in the Walker Morris box here, what show did I see?
Heads: Disney On Ice
Tails: Ant & Dec’s Takeaway
It was the Ant & Dec show.
I don’t know whether Walker Morris still has a box at the arena, but if they do, I’ve probably not boosted my chances of an invitation back.
Have a great weekend.