Bill McLaren's crib sheets to be sold for charity

Published on Wednesday 13 October 2010 18:36

THE Bill McLaren Foundation is launching a new fundraising venture by putting up for sale freshly-printed copies of the commentator's world-famous crib sheets.

The BBC commentator and journalist, who died at the beginning of this year, put together a giant sheet of information for every game that he commentated upon. The charts he used latterly were supplied by a Hawick printer after McLaren discovered them in use locally, and starting with the blank paper he would fill in over 1,000 facts and figures around the players and officials involved in the forthcoming game.

He started receiving requests for copies before and after he retired and found that these became sought-after collector's items and agreed to them being copied for the benefit of charity. A number were made for the Scottish charity Hearts & Balls, which helps to support seriously-injured rugby players, and some have attracted several thousand pounds on their own in other charity auctions across Europe and the southern hemisphere.

The Foundation was formed with McLaren's blessing and launched after his death by his daughter Linda and other family members and friends, including ex-internationalists John Rutherford and Andy Irvine. One of its aims is to "create an educative centre which will include the Bill McLaren Archive", and while work is still ongoing to find a suitable venue for such a centre, archiving of Bill's extensive collection of rugby memorabilia, including his legendary 'Big Sheets', has been underway for some time.

Now, in an effort to help raise funds for the centre, and continue to accommodate interest in McLaren's life, the Foundation has printed 300 copies of one of the crib sheets most requested by rugby fans across the world, which will go on sale for 55. It features the Barbarians match against New Zealand in 1993, which took place at Cardiff Arms Park and was won by the All Blacks 25-12. Scott Hastings captained a Barbarians side featuring Gary Armstrong and Tony Stanger, Wales' Scott Quinnell and Ireland's Eric Elwood.

• More info: www.billmclarenfoundation.co.uk/Big-Sheets