Their number 10 sends the ball sailing through the air. Shouts of "f***" echo through the wind. And then the ball hits me square in the face. I'm down. I'm spinning around. Part of me wishes I had moved out of the way.
Had you told this boy that 20 years on he would be standing in a swish Mayfair club talking to Kylie Minogue, drinking crisp rosé and eating, with some difficulty, two or three bowls of miniature Caesar salad, he would have thought that ball had been a sledgehammer, that he was dreaming. But no, this is Kylie's 56th birthday party, held at Annabel's, and also the fourth anniversary of her wine brand. Here, on a night like this?
It is busy when I arrive.
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