Quote Originally Posted by Nelsonca61 View Post
I started and finished St Illtyds in the same class as Bish 5 years, wasn't in his circle of friends, Jeckyll and hide character, was frightened of no one at the school, except John Actie he had some great scraps usually with the older pupils, and I did witness the day that someone else in the class stood up to him, Bishop had just decked Doug Actie with a thumping left hook, and another lad whose name i'll not mention stood up for Doug, and fronted Bishop up, it was calmed down but it was a watershed moment at the school. In 2003 when i was doing a bit of door work saving for Euro 2004, I did some work for Bishop in town, a very dodgy evening for me and was the turning point for me to say , I don't need the cash that much and stopped doing door work. BAR Blue the place was called at the time, serious drug taking going down.

I played in the same Cardiff Schools side that won the DC Thomas Cup in 70/71 with Bishop, Doug Actie and John Actie. John Actie was a year younger than all of us and yet he was the biggest and easily the strongest in the team. Bishop was a bit special, even at that young age. His father was always there, urging him on from the touchline.
There wasn't really that much money in the game back then when he broke into the first class rugby scene ... "boot money" = enough to cover your expenses and your beer money.
Had Bishop been born in America, for example, he'd have probably cut it as a running back or quarterback and made a fortune (he would have developed bigger size with the American conditioning and facilities). There were no half measures with him, he threw everything into whatever sport he happened to be doing at the time.
Unfortunately for him, he was still involved at a time when rugby was still clinging on desperately to the amateur ways.

Is it an urban myth or did he really used to challenge the gypsies to bare-knuckle fights?