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Doddie and Douglas
Proceeds from the upcoming Douglas Rugby Club book will go to Doddie’s charity
Today sees the memorial service for the Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir, who died of MND in late November.
Not only was Doddie a legend of Scottish rugby, his visits to the Isle of Man and connection with Douglas Rugby Club are also the stuff of legend.
Tony Wilson-Spratt remembered the first time Doddie visited the island in September 2013, when he was scheduled to speak at a hostelry in Athol St, Douglas
Tony said: ‘When the location was not quite ready at the allotted time and it transpired the event had not been marketed, we took him around some town centre pubs before returning for an exclusive gathering.
‘At 6’ 7”and clad in Doddie’s tartan, he was something of a mobile landmark and there’s many that remember his visit who weren’t rugby fans or attending the event. Dropping him off at his hotel on the promenade at 2am, a text later from an airborne Doddie merely said “The 6am taxi was a little tricky”.’
After his first successful, hangover inducing, trip to the island, Doddie and Douglas Rugby Club teamed up again, with him coming to a club dinner in 2016.
Tony said: ‘We’d agreed during the evening that Doddie return for a Douglas rugby club dinner, and in May 2016 he was on the Mooragh Park touchline watching Ramsey v Douglas in the Manx Cup final. That evening in front of 200 guests at the Palace Hotel, his rucking of the club President across the dance floor drew huge applause and he was a consummate and natural entertainer.
‘We kept in touch, and the MND diagnosis some eight months later and subsequent launch of the MyName’5Doddie fund threw Doddie in to the world-wide public eye. The £8m raised so far has gone to MND research at a time when there was little progress being made, and proceeds from the upcoming Douglas Rugby Club book, for which Doddie wrote the foreword, will go the same way.’
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