Andrew Symonds was in the news again for all the wrong reasons last week, but, as usual, it involved a late night visit to a pub, a member of the public and alcohol.

I am no big fan of Roy as I think he has an arrogant persona that just oozes through the television set but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching him play cricket and it wouldn’t stop me buying a Ford motor car either.

But because I am older and wiser than most, although it did take me 50 years to mature, I would never ever approach Roy in a pub to ask him for an autograph or photo. In my mind his demeanor sort of exudes “piss off unless you know me” tattooed across his forehead.

Now I haven’t really got a problem with that, they get paid to play cricket, they do official fan appearances and while it would be nice if he dealt with things better in my opinion it his business what type of person he is. If I saw him in a pub, as long as he wasn’t bothering me I would stay well away. But as I said before that is because I am now older and wiser, a few years ago it may have been different.

Over the years I have been a bit of a celebrity stalker with mixed results.

For instance, I was very excited to meet Fatty Vautin in the early 90s and the first words he said to me were: “How bad is your nose?”

I was shattered me at the time but karma struck years later when I played golf against him at Trevor Gillmeister’s buck’s party and I won $150.

That first meeting could have gone badly but luckily I was a sook about it.

About the same time, I met F1 driver Nigel Mansell after the Grand Prix in Adelaide.He was more that happy to talk to me because someone had told him I was wrestler from Japan so he was trying to figure it all out.

Then there was the origin footballer that I harassed at a bar in Melbourne. It was all going okay until I told him he played for the wrong team so he poked me in the eye. I wasn’t as mature as I am now so I pushed him and he fell in the lap of one of his teammates and that was where the matter ended.

Newsreader Heather Ford got a bit of Ashley when I served her at a pub drive through and I asked her, “Anyone ever told you, you look like Heather Ford?” She sharply replied, “Quiet often because I am,” and drove off. I used that line on Eric Idle last year and sadly he played me for the dimwit I am and it wasn’t until we parted company that I realised it was actually him.

As I have aged, I’ve realized celebrities are like everybody else. They need their own space, and lets face it, they will like some people and not others.

Take me and Wayne Bennett.

I must have met him twenty times in the 80s and 90s but every-time we met he would never know me. I even sat with him at a mates wedding and the next time I saw him was a golf day and I thought, he’ll know me this time so I walked over in front of a few people like a long lost friend and he brushed me. I was devastated until I realized he simply probably didn’t like me. That happens, hard for me to swallow but it happens. Funnily enough, if I run across him these days he always has a yarn.

So if I bump into Andrew Symonds at a pub, all I’m saying is pardon me Roy.