LIONS CAPTAINCY CAME AS SHOCK TO ‘BIG MIKE”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31017, 24 March 1966, Page 15

LIONS CAPTAINCY CAME AS SHOCK TO ‘BIG MIKE”

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

LONDON.

The most surprising thing, amid the rather cynical reaction to the appointment of M. J. Campbell-Lamerton to British Rugby’s greatest honour, the captaincy of the Lions in Australia and New Zealand, is his own surprise.

“It is completely and unchallengediy sincere,” Christopher Ford wrote in the “Guardian.”

“Nobody had tipped him so much as a wink. Indeed, his

confidence in going on the I tour at all was so limited; that he was already well; advanced with plans for the; summer holidays. “Campbell-Lamerton. in fact, heard of his appointment in the classic way newspapers like to boast of, when a journalist rang him up and' said ‘Congratulations’ and was promptly asked what on earth he was talking about. “Among the first messages were a long-distance telephone call from Ireland’s R. ■ J. McLoughlin, who once I looked to have the best j chance of the Lions’ captaincy, and a telegram from I A. E. I. Pask, the Welshman ;who was widely expected to I get the job. I “In all the circumstances

this moved Campbell-Larner-1 ton very much, and is. he feels, a good omen for saolidarity on tour, no matter what personal disappointments are hidden in the past. “Campbell-Lamerton is a big man physically, with a big man's virtues. He has an air of strength and confidence, and first strikes one as being reliable rather than particularly subtle. “His loyalty is complete to anything he gets involved in. His nickname of ‘Big Mike' suits him well, and he is very much the sort of person whom some might dismiss as a mere ‘hearty.’

“Yet he has an obvious sympathetic streak, together with the intellectual equipment to teach military history, law 'and tactics to Sandhurst cadets.

“Those whose only picture of Campbell-Lamerton is of a massive figure in tousled scrum cap and muddy dark blue jersey, right fist thumping into his left palm as he drives his forwards on. would find no incongruity in his offfield manner.

“In denims, boots and gaiters, with the three pips of a captain looking unusually small on his shoulder, he shambles into the R.M.A. mess at Sandhurst and talks —without a trace of bravado—of a 20-mile route march followed by basketball (which he is good at) or squash (which he much enjoys). "To him. this is a natural way of life. MALTESE BORN

Campbell-Lamerton was born in Malta to a naval father, who was killed during the war, and finished his schooling jn Surrey. “He joined the Army as a national serviceman, and signed on after the war in Korea. He has been in uniform now for 14 years. Service abroad, in several famous trouble spots, delayed his emergence in big Rugby, though he joined Blackheath in 1952.

“He describes himself as a ‘mediocre player’ then, and in 1956, while siting observation posts as an intelligence officer in the mountains of Cyprus, he fell from a helicopter and so broke his right leg that he was told that he would never walk on it again. “This bit of medical pessimism, it seems, served only as inspiration. Five years later Campbell-Lamerton, whose name is part Scots and part Cornish, but whose accent is neither, was playing for Scotland.

“His subsequent career with London Scottish, the Army and Surrey, adds up to a great deal of Rugby.

“At 32, moreover. CampbellLamerton is almost pensionable in international Rugbyterms. but, he says, his late start means he is younger in Rugby years than his age sug I gests.

“He hopes to have a brief rest from the game before the tour, and, such is his fitness and physique, will face five hard months with equanimity.

“Campbell-Lamerton likes the responsibility of leading a Rugby team, though he has not been very successful at it recently. Scotland took their captaincy away from him last season.

“He knows his own mind, and has clear views about basic principles and how things should be done. By a fortunate coincidence he is a close friend of J. D.

Robins, the assistant manager and unofficial coach: they got to know one another while sharing a room on a coaching course in Germany last year. “If, in the coming months, the Lions have a bad run, Campbell • Lamerton knows that he may come in for a lot of public criticism. “He realises how delicate his position is—especially, perhaps, in Welsh eyes—but when he says he will do his best the phrase does not have the usual pessimistic shrug of the shoulders about it His best is a considerable thing “He is deeply conscious of the honour that has been done him, and is not the sort of person to let down those who trust him.

i “Whatever else happens. I his integrity will never fail I him.”