Independent Rs Messageboard

[Steve Russell]

Jim Johnston from Belfast wrote this some years ago...

'I happened to mention a strange encounter with an Algerian QPR supporter
in the Sahara Desert in 1979. Since then I have been promising Steve that I’d write a
piece about this event.

As the years have gone by and my natural laziness has gotten worse, I’ve often thought about that
Sahara incident and said to myself: ‘It’s really not that interesting anyway’ and that’s been my
excuse for doing nothing about it until now.

The ‘Sahara incident’ involves, amongst other things, one replica Adidas QPR shirt and an
Algerian fan of Rachid Harkouk.

I was on a Christmas/New Year holiday to Algeria in
December 1979 to January 1980 and one incident among many others
(including races up a 200ft sand dune!) that happened on that strange trip, was meeting an
Algerian bloke at an oasis in the Sahara Desert in the south of the country.

The guy was a massive fan of Harkouk, who had joined us from Palace that year, and he
literally begged me to let him have my QPR shirt; offering me all sorts of inducements
(some of which cannot be mentioned on such a wholesome website as this).

Anyway, in the interests of international relations, I let him have the shirt in exchange
for a pair of Italian sunglasses and an invite to one of the most unusual parties I’ve ever attended
!!!

[steveqpr881]

Can't help but feel JJ's left the best bits out.....
could do with more detail, on the inducements & the party.....

[Steve Russell]

He's coming over in October for the Cardiff home game Steve,
X-certificate version

[steveqpr881]

Mind you, Rachid was never the same, after he got involved with Deirdre Barlow.