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#Post#: 126872--------------------------------------------------
Erika Roe interview
DIR By: DOK
Date: August 8, 2024, 10:08 am
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‘I turned down Page Three, Penthouse – it was never about money
or fame for me’
Britain’s most famous top less pitch invader on what happened
after her Twickenham cameo in 1982
Charles Richardson, Rugby Reporter 7 August 2024 • 5:42pm
HTML https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2024/08/07/erika-roe-streaking-twickenham-what-she-did-next/
Not far from the Portuguese beach town of Lagos, in a renovated
goat shed, sits a long-time Algarve resident whose place in
English rugby folklore has been consecrated since she blasted
into the Twickenham public’s consciousness 42 years ago.
She is a cult hero. But, curiously, she gained this status
having never actually played the sport for which she is known.
She is a farmer of sweet potatoes and proteas, a property
renovations guru, a mother of three, a grandmother of two, a
divorcee and, as of late, a marketeer – even at the age of 66.
For 36 years, she has lived a remote life in the Algarve, at one
with nature, shunning the television and the news; far removed
from the media and the headlines which provided her 15 minutes
of fame in 1982.
Her name is Erika Roe and she is best remembered as one of the
first notable streakers.
A pioneer of sorts, Roe stormed the Twickenham pitch at
half-time of an England victory over Australia, sending the
crowd into raptures. As all who remember the snapshots will
recall, Roe’s on-pitch attire – or lack of it – gives memories
of that day an explicit edge. One of the police officers covered
Roe’s chest with his helmet while leading her off the field.
Had Kenneth Williams been in the crowd, those around him would
have overheard a “ooh, matron”.
“I was with my older sister, who was a lot more sober than me,
and we got to the beer tent at Twickenham – as it was in those
days – we’d had a bit to drink but it was the atmosphere at
Twickenham,” she tells Telegraph Sport. “I had no clue what I
was going into. I sidled down to the pitchside from my seat – I
was getting away from a guy who I was getting fed up with – and
I walked down. And it was electric; such a buzz.
“There was a guy on the pitch, at half-time, in a gorilla suit,
I recall. Bill Beaumont and the rest of the England team were
chatting on the pitch – it was in the days before they went in
at half-time – eating oranges and having a team talk.
“I don’t know if someone said ‘don’t they streak now?’ or
something but the word ‘streak’ rang in my ears from wherever
and the next minute I did it on the hoof. I just went out. If I
had thought about it for a second more, I’m not sure I would
have done it. It was just a spur-of-the-moment madness.
“As I was out on the field, charging around, avoiding all these
guys trying to grab me, I heard the 67,000 crowd roar. I thought
the game was restarting so I thought: ‘S---, I’d better get off,
quickly.’ I turned around but the players were still talking.
That’s the famous whizz I did with the shirt up in the air
because at that point I realised: ‘Jesus, they’re screaming for
me!’ I couldn’t believe it!
“I was taken to the police station with Sarah, who I’d met that
weekend. I said ‘ready, steady, go’ but she was too bloody slow.
Off I went and I got the limelight!
“It was a crazy day. But my life is very much like that. I’m
very spontaneous. I grab every opportunity in life to have fun
and see the good side of things.
“I’m a risk-taker and renowned for being a bit batty, making
decisions at the last minute, and making a fool of myself. I
learnt very young, at boarding school, that the only way to get
through life is a) to laugh at yourself and b) make people like
themselves and entertain them. You can get through hell and high
water if you make people feel good. My middle name is ‘clown’.
“I was wearing an old viola shirt from the Oxfam shop and a pair
of jeans with boots. It was not organised. But I took my bra off
in the stands, in the group, and handed it to some guy behind me
– I never got it back!”
If you were that mystery man in the crowd, then please return
the garment to the Algarve…
For Roe, however, streaking was only the beginning. In the
aftermath she realised the enormity of what she was about to
become. Before her move to the Algarve, Roe even wrote a column
for a short-lived rugby newspaper. And the racy contract offers
flooded in, with Page Three and Penthouse magazine among them.
“I was hauled off, giggling, and was taken to the station where
I carried on with my antics of flirting with all the officers,”
Roe says.
“They were waiting to hear from the Twickenham authorities as to
whether they wanted to do anything. Of course, we won, and they
sort of said: ‘Well, it might have been because of her that we
won so we can’t possibly fine her.’ There’s a huge photograph of
me somewhere at Twickenham RFC and I’m treated like a queen when
I go there. It’s wonderful. I love it. The rugby world is a
super place; all the camaraderie.
“We all met up in the local pub and carried on drinking and
celebrating, because England had won, and some guys from
Sandhurst joined us. They had just come back from Northern
Ireland and were still wearing their uniforms. It was a very
romantic evening.
“The guy behind the bar heard us talking about what I’d done and
he passed me the business card of a journalist who was trying to
find us. In my pickled state, I called her and she arrived and
interviewed me. I told her who I was, where I lived – I was
pretty drunk so I didn’t really care what I was telling them –
and I assumed that the next day there would be a small article
in the sports pages about it.
“I didn’t think any more about it until we woke up Sunday
morning to buy some bacon and we saw the newspapers and it was
just: ‘Oh. My. God.’
“In 1982, it was the beginning of organised celebrity-ism,
getting managers etc. After me, loads of people were getting
involved in streaking and they already had agencies set up. It
was a deliberate thing. Mine wasn’t. Mine was a moment of
madness.
“Even though there were various people trying to get involved in
being my agent, it was just b-------. Everyone was just trying
to make money out of me. If I had carried on working behind the
bar all those years, I’d have earned more than if I had
continued in the public eye.”
She adds: “It’s an industry like anything else. I didn’t feel
angry or upset but I just look back and laugh at some of the
stuff I did do. About a week after I streaked, I was invited to
be interviewed on Nationwide. I went on and as I came out,
legging it all over London, and outside the television studio
was this smartly dressed guy, hassling me.
“He was from Penthouse magazine. He was offering an incredible
amount of money to sign a contract to go into their studios and
have my nude body photographed for the centre page. I said no. I
didn’t do the streak to become a nude model, I did it for fun
and that was as far as it went.
“I turned down Page Three, Penthouse, but one thing that people
never understood was that it was never about money or fame for
me. I’ve got a famous name because the journalists created it. I
did the streak but after I could have just gone home and been
forgotten. But the media picked up on it. Right time, right
place, cold January, all sorts of awful disasters in the news,
and it was a bit of fresh air and sunshine – and I made a lot of
people laugh. That was enough. It was good.”
Roe, an icon of English rugby, was left exhilarated by her 15
minutes, but she never wanted to make a living off of her run on
the famous “Cabbage Patch” of Twickenham. Instead, the draw of
sweet potatoes and the good life was more alluring than any tilt
at fame and fortune.
#Post#: 126874--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: SiB
Date: August 8, 2024, 11:24 am
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Used to have a picture of her in a line out on my rugby clubs
wall
Obviously long since removed
#Post#: 126875--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: Mayor West
Date: August 8, 2024, 11:48 am
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All I can say is that “I was there” .
#Post#: 126877--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: Squint
Date: August 8, 2024, 12:03 pm
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HTML https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1STAmBUwAIUh6w.jpg
#Post#: 126880--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: dinsdale
Date: August 8, 2024, 1:23 pm
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--- Quote from: Mayor West link ---
>
> All I can say is that “I was there” .
>
--- End Quote ---
Same here. First game my dad took me to.
#Post#: 126881--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: sussexquin
Date: August 8, 2024, 3:02 pm
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--- Quote from: Squint link ---
>
>
HTML https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1STAmBUwAIUh6w.jpg
>
--- End Quote ---
That’s where her bra went…..
#Post#: 126885--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: August 9, 2024, 1:16 am
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Un quint. Sounds like.
#Post#: 126887--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: poorfour
Date: August 9, 2024, 1:26 am
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--- Quote from: dinsdale link ---
>
> Same here. First game my dad took me to.
>
--- End Quote ---
My dad was there but didn’t take me until the following year…
which was a much less interesting match on several counts.
#Post#: 126888--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: Quinky
Date: August 9, 2024, 1:44 am
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--- Quote from: NutQuin link ---
>
> Whoa aren’t you funny, sexist old man pun to attract the old
geezers on here
>
--- End Quote ---
Maybe some women would like it to.
You seem a bit sexist.
#Post#: 126891--------------------------------------------------
Re: Erika Roe interview
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: August 9, 2024, 2:54 am
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stinky dont give them oxygen....
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