Bloody-minded Boycott

The death yesterday of Anthony Clare, the radio psychiatrist, brought back memories of the time when Geoffrey Boycott appeared on Clare's show In the Psychiatrist's Chair. Unlike most of the guests, who are quite happy to unburden their feelings and fears, Boycott persistently stonewalled Clare's questions, keeping out every probing attempt as if it were a yorker from Jeff Thomson.

Clare began by asking Boycott bluntly, "Why did you agree to put your complex personality in the psychiatrist's chair?" To which Boycott replied: "Because I was asked to do so by the publishers [of his latest book]." "Did you have any particular interest in the whole idea?" Clare said. "No," said Boycott, who went on to say that he didn't trust the views of anyone on any subject unless they could bat, adding that when anyone said "good luck" to him, he would reply that it was nothing to do with luck and all to do with ability.

Clare later said that "I thought no man was an island until I met Geoffrey Boycott."

You can read a transcript of the interview here, including Boycott's illuminating views on women. "Stay away from them," his mother told him. "They get you into trouble."