Encounters Ben


Source: Ben

IN-STORE APPEARANCE


On December 22nd 2005, I went with my friends to the city via a train to get my copy of the the “Ashes Diary 2005” signed by Ricky Ponting in a bookstore called Angus and Robertson.

When I got there, there was short queue as I arrived there early in the morning but Ricky Ponting was no where to be found.

After a 30 minute wait, he came in a Mercedes Benz and walked into the bookstore and sat down at the autograph table.

My friends and I managed to get the book signed and a picture.

As the queue got longer, we walked outside feeling happy and excited and walked to Rebel Sport to purchase a mini autograph bat hoping that Ricky would also sign that too after he was done with everyone else. When we got to the counter, the lady there said that four of the South African cricketers were coming too in an hour.

This was a very lucky day for us and as we went back to the bookstore, we had a few words with Ricky and got our bats signed and decided to get some lunch.

When we arrived back at Rebel Sport, there was no queue and thwe manager asked us to sit down and wait.

A couple of minutes later, the Channel 10 news crew came and interviewed some of us and had a chat.

At that time, a couple of people joined the queue.

Moments later, we could see “them” walking in and sitting down at the tables.

As the TV crew filmed us getting our autographs, there was a short inteview between the TV crew and the stars.

After that, we caught a tram back to Federation Square where there were lots of activities and a coupel of the Victorian Bushrangers were there to sign your bats too.

There were activities like Xbox Games, free drinks and all these freebies.

We decided to call it a day and made our way back to Flinders Street Station where we caught the train back to Jordanville station.

In the end, we had met 5 International Test Cricketers and 4 state cricketers!

It was a great experience and I went home feeling great!

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