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Ex-Scotland rugby player pelted with eggs on bike commute

John Beattie, who now hosts show on BBC Radio Scotland, has reported incident to police

A former Scotland and British Lions rugby player who now hosts a show on BBC Radio Scotland has revealed how he was pelted with eggs by a car passenger as he cycled home from work in Glasgow yesterday.

John Beattie, aged 60, posted a video to Twitter in which he revealed that he’d not only taken a note of the vehicle’s make, but also its registration.

What he did, after encouragement from his followers on the social network, was report the incident to Police Scotland, according to The Scotsman.

He said: “I was a wee bit unsteady, I got angry and chased them a bit, but I couldn’t catch them.

“At the time I thought it was an apple or something. I got back home and thought it was bodily fluid or something.

“I had a shower and went back and there were two or three eggs at least. One had hit me and the others had shot past me.

“There was a bit of yelping and laughing, but I didn’t see anybody.”

He continued: “I’ve reported it. I contacted people on Twitter and there was one who had a friend who had been blinded. And there was taxi drivers saying they get it a lot.

“So I thought I better report it. “I don’t know what they’ll be able to do because no-one has been identified, they’ve only got the car reg and there’s no second witness.

“But I’ve reported it, so that it’s a statistic of a cyclist being hit by eggs.”

It’s the first such incident the former flanker and number eight, who commutes by bike daily, has encountered.

“Most drivers are great,” he said. “They let you in, they wave you in. Taxi drivers, delivery drivers, they are all brilliant.

“My commute has been a non-event until this, but it’s one really random event. “I believe in peace on the roads. Most people are brilliant.”

He acknowledged he was lucky to escape without serious injury, tweeting a link to a road.cc article from last year about a cyclist in Berkshire who sustained a serious eye injury when a car passenger threw an egg at him from a car.

Beattie won 25 caps for Scotland between 1980 and 1987, when his career was cut short by injury, and also toured South Africa and New Zealand with the British Lions.

He is now a writer and broadcaster focusing on sports including rugby union and also presents a lunchtime talk show on BBC Radio Scotland.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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16 comments

Avatar
hennie | 6 years ago
1 like

PLEASE no more!!

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet replied to hennie | 6 years ago
3 likes
hennie wrote:

PLEASE no more!!

I'm think your attitude is eggacerbating the problem. 

Avatar
OldRidgeback replied to Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
0 likes
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
hennie wrote:

PLEASE no more!!

I'm think your attitude is eggacerbating the problem. 

 

Frying the brain probably

Avatar
OldRidgeback | 6 years ago
1 like

It's lucky he's a hard-boiled ex-rugby player and not someone easily poached by such an incident.

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peted76 | 6 years ago
1 like

Oh I'm too late to this thread, all the egg yolks have been poached already!

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Dnnnnnn replied to peted76 | 6 years ago
2 likes
peted76 wrote:

Oh I'm too late to this thread, all the egg yolks have been poached already!

Too laid? 'Fried so. You've really clucked it up.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
2 likes

He clearly egged them on by not wearing hi-viz.  

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ConcordeCX | 6 years ago
14 likes

Thanks for the picture. I'd been wondering what eggs look like.

Avatar
leqin replied to ConcordeCX | 6 years ago
2 likes
ConcordeCX wrote:

Thanks for the picture. I'd been wondering what eggs look like.

 

Speak for yourself - I thought eggs came in a tin - my whole darned worlds been ruined by this informationindecision

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
1 like

Om, let us hope the police have a big albumen of local toe-rags to look at.
If he recognises one he can boil their baw-bags til they confess.

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scooterjinx | 6 years ago
3 likes

The police have scrambled all resourses, the culprits will be battered as it’s no yolking matter

Avatar
giff77 | 6 years ago
4 likes

Well I suppose that ”The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang afta-gley.” And that these individuals will soon find themselves cooped up. 

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to giff77 | 6 years ago
3 likes
giff77 wrote:

Well I suppose that ”The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang afta-gley.” And that these individuals will soon find themselves cooped up. 

Oeuful!

Avatar
FrankH replied to giff77 | 6 years ago
5 likes
giff77 wrote:

Well I suppose that ”The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang afta-gley.” And that these individuals will soon find themselves cooped up. 

Maybe they'll be made to shell out instead.

Avatar
kitkat | 6 years ago
9 likes

This is eggactly the type of incident the police offer a poultry response to which is hendemic across the UK

The jokers likely poached the idea from someone else

Avatar
alansmurphy replied to kitkat | 6 years ago
5 likes
kitkat wrote:

This is eggactly the type of incident the police offer a poultry response to which is hendemic across the UK

The jokers likely poached the idea from someone else

 

Cracking!

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