IT is quite some time since I got told off by someone’s parents for keeping their child out too late.
I’d say about 40 years.
Until last night.
I wouldn’t mind, but it wasn’t like I was leading a teeny tearaway astray.
I was scolded for keeping a 27-year-old boxer out late.
The day began well enough before this unexpected denouement.
My colleague Andrea and I were supporting a Christmas event for staff at the Leeds office of accountants and business advisers TC Group.
We brought in Marc Priestley, the former number one mechanic for the McLaren Formula One team who is now a commentator on grand prix for the BBC, Sky and presents the popular TV car show Wheeler Dealers.
Marc, who was with McLaren for 10 years during which they won the World Drivers’ Championship with Lewis Hamilton at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, was a great speaker who told stories which, even for those of us not into motor racing, were fascinating.
The McLaren pit lane team were already the fastest at pit stops with a time of four seconds.
Then McLaren boss Ron Dennis challenged them to look at every aspect of what they did in a bid to reduce that figure, even if it was by one hundredth of a second.
By deconstructing the whole process they reduced the time of a pitstop to 1.2 seconds.
He showed us some video of the three fastest ever pitstops, all by McLaren and they were so fast your eyes blurred at the activity on screen.
It left you wondering if the mechanics had even changed the wheels before the car growled out of the pit lane and back onto the track.
I’ve sometimes seen sporting speakers draw rather clumsy parallels between their experiences and the world of business in a bid to appeal to a corporate audience.
However Marc Priestley’s reflections were very relevant to a team working together in an office.
If everyone shares a belief that anything is possible and they are empowered to think outside the box then great things can be achieved.
You need to think differently than your competition if you want to start beating them.
I also enjoyed his reflections on the amazing talent of Lewis Hamilton, who he said is a driver who is very emotional.
He said Hamilton’s performance in races could be directly linked to how his relationship with then girlfriend, popstar Nicole Scherzinger, was going.
After his speech we all headed along York Place to Da Vito, the welcoming Italian restaurant that has become something of a canteen for the Leeds financial and legal community, including the partners at TC Group.
Vito, Fabrizio and chef Mark put on an incredible spread of food and drinks for the TC Group team and then I did a Q&A with a second guest speaker, boxer Niall Farrell.
Well, I say Q&A, once I introduced Niall I asked him one question and off he went telling his fascinating story.
You might remember that I wrote about Niall a few weeks ago after he announced his retirement from professional boxing because of a hand injury that could have left him permanently disabled if he had carried on fighting.
Richard Bright, managing partner of TC Group in Leeds, read it and said he thought Niall’s story of achievement and resilience would inspire and resonate with his team.
It is incredible to think that Niall, who is 5ft 9 and a half inches tall, once boxed at flyweight which is 52kg, just over eight stone and won the 2017 ABA title and a silver medal at the European Championships.
After stepping up to featherweight he was hotly tipped to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in his home city of Birmingham in 2022.
I saw at the time that he had been stopped in the first round of his first bout.
His description of the circumstances of that defeat yesterday was powerful and concerning.
Struggling to make the weight, he had cut out not just food but fluids too, in the final days before the contest.
Still slightly over the weight on the day of the bout, he had a hot bath and went for a run and entered the ring completely drained.
After that huge disappointment Niall, who is trained by his father, decided to turn pro.
After conversations with some of the biggest promoters in this country, including Eddie Hearn and Ben Shalom, he decided to go with a local promoter who could deliver the regular fights he craved.
After turning pro in March last year he racked up seven straight wins in 12 months before a series of consultations with specialists delivered the devasting news that he would be unable to use his right hand properly again if he continued boxing.
He admitted yesterday that he is still processing the news and has worked as a forklift driver and now in scaffolding.
His searingly honest admission that he has even thought about getting his injured hand patched up so he can have at least one more fight brought shakes of the head from the audience and many people spoke to him afterwards to offer encouragement for him to purse other career goals.
He spent some time chatting with Marc Priestley about the world of public speaking and the partners at TC Group have offered their support.
It all suggests that this articulate, inspiring and very likeable young man has a great future ahead of him, even if it doesn’t involve his first love, boxing.
His words clearly resonated with the team at TC Group and he staying talking to guests long after his speech had ended.
And that is where I got in trouble.
Apparently Niall had told his parents and management team that he would be back in Birmingham in the late afternoon.
But his phone had run out of charge and so he hadn’t been in contact with them to update them.
When I walked him back to collect his car from the TC Group’s office car park it was late in the evening.
As Niall headed home, I glanced at my phone and saw several missed calls and Whatsapp messages from Niall’s Mum, Dad and management team.
I decided to phone his Mum as his Dad’s name on his WhatsApp profile is “Paddy Whack”.
I reassured Mrs Farrell that Niall was fine and the only reason he was late leaving was because he was in such demand to chat to members of the audience who had found him so engaging and inspiring.
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GLANCE at the photograph above and tell me which of the two faces in it looks like it has taken part in over 100 boxing bouts?
I know.
I’m asking Santa for extra moisturiser and a powerful cucumber under-eye cream.
Have a great weekend.