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How to tune into Sport NationOne flight, 52 beers: An eye-witness account of Boon’s ’89 Ashes effort
SEN • November 28th, 2025 5:07 pm
Former Australian quick Geoff Lawson had a front-row seat for two of Australian cricket’s most talked-about off-field stories.
Both of those yarns came on flights from Australia to England ahead of overseas tours, with the central protagonists Rod Marsh and David Boon.
By now, just about every Aussie cricket fan has heard of their marathon drinking sessions, and both icons looked to better their predecessors by total drinks consumed on the flight to the other side of the world.
The record was first set by Doug Walters, who is said to have consumed 44 beers en route to the 1977 Ashes, and six years later, ahead of the ’83 World Cup in England, Marsh went one better by reaching 45.
Six years after that, Boon entered, determined to break the 50-mark, and Lawson, who was an eyewitness to both attempts, shed light on the famous session with The Telegraph.
According to Lawson, Boon broke that record by consuming 52 drinks, and it wasn’t just beer that the Tasmanian was drinking.
How does Lawson know that? Well, the former pace bowler – who never drank during his career – kept track of exactly what Boon was consuming by noting the exact measurements down per drink on the back of a sick bag.
“I was writing it on the back of a sick bag: the brand, the alcohol content and the volume,” Lawson told the Telegraph.
“It was a whole lot of different drinks – lots of beer, a few spirits, but I recorded every drink’s alcohol content. One of my biggest regrets of my career is that I’ve written this all down on the back of a white sick bag, but I left it on the plane. It would have been one of the greatest pieces of memorabilia in Australian sporting history.”
Somehow, according to Lawson, Boon managed to walk off the plane himself, with none of the Australian management picking up on what state he was in.
Luckily for Boon, he’s remembered for far more than his exploits on that famous flight, having featured in 107 Tests, scoring 21 tons for his country.
“No one who ever knew Boonie or even saw him play would remember him as anything other than a first-class bloke and even better cricketer,” Lawson said, “but the 52 not out will always be folklore.”
