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.
I’ve got the car make, the colour, the reg number, and the stuff the passenger covered me with when I cycled home. Mmmmm what to do, what to do.
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 4, 2017
What he did, after encouragement from his followers on the social network, was report the incident to Police Scotland, according to The Scotsman.
Anyway your honour it was eggs they got me with pic.twitter.com/g6Q9md6x8t
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 4, 2017
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.
I was lucky by comparison https://t.co/OVmMVmPYty
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 5, 2017
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.

16 thoughts on “Ex-Scotland rugby player pelted with eggs on bike commute”
This is eggactly the type of
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
kitkat wrote:
Cracking!
Well I suppose that ”The best
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.
giff77 wrote:
Oeuful!
giff77 wrote:
Maybe they’ll be made to shell out instead.
The police have scrambled all
The police have scrambled all resourses, the culprits will be battered as it’s no yolking matter
Om, let us hope the police
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.
Thanks for the picture. I’d
Thanks for the picture. I’d been wondering what eggs look like.
ConcordeCX wrote:
Speak for yourself – I thought eggs came in a tin – my whole darned worlds been ruined by this information
He clearly egged them on by
He clearly egged them on by not wearing hi-viz.
Oh I’m too late to this
Oh I’m too late to this thread, all the egg yolks have been poached already!
peted76 wrote:
Too laid? ‘Fried so. You’ve really clucked it up.
It’s lucky he’s a hard-boiled
It’s lucky he’s a hard-boiled ex-rugby player and not someone easily poached by such an incident.
PLEASE no more!!
PLEASE no more!!
hennie wrote:
I’m think your attitude is eggacerbating the problem.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Frying the brain probably