Boon has always refused to confirm or deny this story – probably because he was sworn to secrecy by the strait–laced Australian tour manager, Bob Simpson. The closest he's ever got to commenting was in 2006: "If people haven't got something else to talk about they have led a f***ing boring life."
The story of Australian cricketers' drinking feats really begins in 1973: Ian Chappell's team were returning home from a tour of the West Indies, having won the Test series 2–0. Batsman Doug Walters and wicket–keeper batsman Rod Marsh challenged each other to see which of them could drink more on the flight. No one seems to have remembered to count Marsh's tally, but Walters was said to have managed 44 beers.
On the flight to the 1983 World Cup in England, Rod Marsh set out to make amends for his apparent failure to get anyone to keep his score ten years earlier. He succeeded – downing 45 beers, with encouragement from fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee.
In 1989, Allan Border's Australian team had an unenviable recent record and had been described as the worst team ever to set out for the 'old country'. They decided to get their retaliation in early – "to put a trophy on the shelf before a ball was bowled in anger".
Times had moved on, and in 1989 even cricketers had to be more careful about their fitness. Boon manfully took on the task of establishing the squad's credentials single–handed. His attempt was a low–key affair – it had to be kept secret from the fanatical Bob Simpson. Rookie middle–order batsman Dean Jones, whose father had advised him to sit next to Boon on the flight and try to pick up a few tips about playing in England, kept up with him as far as Singapore; but there he had to be helped into an impromptu bed, "pissed as a fart". A number of other players took turns to sit alongside Boon and sink a few to help him on his way. It was an early example of squad rotation.
As the plane descended towards Heathrow, Boon's tally was confirmed by the scorer – tee–totaller Geoff Lawson. The captain addressed his passengers in the usual style: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London where it is six degrees outside. I want to wish the Australian team all the best. I know they'll do very well because David Boon has just broken the record, 52 cans from Sydney to London."
That may well have been what gave the game away to Bob Simpson. He fined Boon $5,000, and threatened to send him straight home. Merv Hughes was in even more trouble – he told the world about it in a radio interview.
They both survived however, and played their parts in a very successful tour. Boon averaged 55, and Australia regained the Ashes (which Mike Gatting's team, including Ian Botham on his last tour of Australia, had won in 1986–7). Wicket–keeper Ian Healey said: "The spirit in the team was as good as anything I've ever been involved in."
Boon became known as "the Keg on Legs". One person who was not impressed, however, was Ian Chappell – by now a television commentator in both Australia and England. He'd been informed that Boon had drunk 58 cans, rather than 52. "What is the world going to think?" he ranted. "That Australia has become a namby–pamby nation which doesn't know how to drink? For God's sake, in my day fifty–eight beers between Sydney and London would virtually have classified you as a teetotaller."
Various attempts have since been made to break Boon's record, including several by representatives of other sports, but no one has ever claimed to have broken it. When the England rugby union squad returned from Australia with the World Cup in 1999, centre Mike Tindall was reported to have managed "close to 50 cans"; but no one else appears to have got closer.
Mike Tindall is now the Queen's grandson–in–law.
You can read more here (from the Weekend Australian magazine) or here (from The Grauniad).
© Haydn Thompson 2018