Now it can be told: truth about Andy’s M4 buggygate

NEWS, as defined by an ancient rule of journalism, is not necessarily when it happens but when it breaks, in other words when someone revealed it. So brace yourself dear reader for a bit of breaking news on Andy Powell and his infamous golf buggy early one Sunday morning in February 2008.

After a night long celebration of a dramatic home win over Scotland the previous afternoon, the Welsh Lion ended up driving the cart more than a mile along the M4 from the team’s base to the Cardiff West service station in search of ‘munchies’.

The upshot has been well-documented. Charged with being drunk in charge of a golf buggy, given a 15-month driving ban and fined £1,000, Powell was also kicked out of the Wales squad. Now for the new bit, as revealed by his Wales team-mate Lee Byrne in his autobiography published by Y Lolfa.

He picks the story up in a city centre bar where a number of players wound up in a ‘leathered’ state. “I was as drunk as I’ve ever been and had to be carried out before being kindly transported back to the Vale hotel in a police car,’’ Byrne says. “By the time I got there, I’d gathered enough of a second wind to join a few others at the bar.

“2am rolled round and, with it, closing time. Andy was trying, and failing, to get room service so we could carry on drinking.

“As we stumbled through the doors at the front of the hotel, he started messing about with one of the golf buggies parked outside.

“The rest of us were doing the same. I dimly remember hanging onto the back of Powelly’s buggy before falling off. My last memory was of seeing the big man driving off into the distance. My race was run and I turned in.’’

Just as well…