After the first Test in Guyana, both groups headed to Port of Spain, Trinidad, and the old Queen's Park Oval. Australia declared its first innings closed at 4-576 against an unremarkable West Indian attack, as Ricky Ponting plundered 206, Darren Lehmann 160 and Adam Gilchrist 101 not out as part of an 118-run win.

Pascoe, now 35, remembers the day for a very different incident – the moment his and the young Pup's paths crossed, or well, crashed.

"There was a dog track around the oval, and a six or seven foot high chicken wire fence, and we were in the front row of the first tier of the stand, so back a fair way," Pascoe recalls. "Michael Clarke at the end of the day's play came out to collect the big Gatorade Eskies they stick down there for the fast bowlers fielding at fine leg or third man. He was obviously 14th or 15th man in the touring party, he hadn't played a Test at this stage, and his job was to bring in the Gatorade Eskies.

"They were still half full so he's chucking all these bottles of Gatorade over the fence to all the kids that were milling around, so that he didn't have to lug them back in. It was right in front of us, but there weren't many Aussies there at this stage of tour, and we were right in front of him and wearing our Uni Blacks footy jumpers and had Aussie flags and things like that, so I've just yelled out 'Clarkey, Clarkey', wing one up here'.

"I've got my rum in my right hand and sunnies on and he's taken 10 or 15 steps back from the fence so he can throw it over the chicken wire and winged one straight at me. And I've got my left hand out and it's gone straight into my left hand and straight through and it's hit me fair on the forehead, and bounced on to two people directly below me.

"I've sort of gone down and everybody I was with was on the ground as well, cos they were laughing. And I've got my hand to my head and my sunnies are broken and there's claret absolutely everywhere. So I got up and said 'Clarkey, look what you've done', as I've got blood just streaming down my face. He's basically looked up and you could just see this look of horror on his face, and he's just turned and run away across the ground towards the sheds.

"Anyway, the next day we've gone to the ground and I've got this great big lump on my forehead, with butterfly clips and Betadine all over it, and I'm wearing this terry towelling hat just to sort of cover this grotesque thing coming out of my head.

"The Aussie squad was out there running around before the day's play, and they've come right up to the fence and started doing their stretches and I see Michael Clarke second from the end next to Andy Bichel and I've gone right up to him, face-to-face and said 'Clarkey, do you remember me?', and I've ripped off my hat, and there's this big lump and gash staring him in the face.

"He just said 'Oh, I'm so sorry, mate, I'm so sorry," and I said 'Oh mate, I'm pretty sure it wasn't your fault!'

"I remember saying to one of my mates 'now all I need Clarkey to do is to play 100 Tests, score 10,000 Test runs and captain Australia to make it a pretty good story,' and he said it was a pretty good story, anyway, but I think he has done all that (105 Tests, 8240 runs).'

"I've got a scar still, but it's pretty faded. And, for my 30th birthday, my wife (Claire) got me a cricket bat signed by Michael Clarke.

It  reads 'Wayde, keep working on your catching'."

THE WATCHMAN

1 minute to midnight... until the end of the Brisbane Lions 2001-03 premiership era, when the last remaining link Ash McGrath - who played in the 2003 flag - retires after Sunday's game against Fremantle.

LOCAL HERO

Baseball in Australia is always searching for heroes, and this week the Melbourne Aces baseball celebrated the role of their general manager Windsor Knox, who plans to step down. Knox, who has led the club since the formation of the Australian Baseball League in 2010, said the move to the Melbourne Ballpark had been a turning point for the club. "It has been a long four years but I am proud of what our team has done for baseball during that time" he said.

WHAT THEY SHOULD DO

The suits at AFL headquarters have themselves in a lather regarding declining crowd figures in Melbourne. They should get with the program and emulate the Grand Prix operatives - include all of the club officials and the security gnomes that are zipping around every nook and cranny of the event. Problem solved! Security could be quadrupled and attendance figures would go through the Docklands roof. - CHRISTOPHER K HOLDSTOCK, Glenroy

Email your contribution to: sundaysport@theage.com.au or twitter: @sundayagesport