PIPE Major Vera Marshall, of Braemar Girls’ Pipe Band, Coatbridge, was all smiles as she met a boxing legend in September 1963.

Charles “Sonny” Liston, the world heavyweight champion, had flown into Renfrew Airport to take part in a three-round exhibition bout at Paisley, staged by Peter Keenan. He gave Vera a “long and lingering embrace” before taking over the baton and conducting his way through Scotland the Brave. He entered into the spirit of things by gingerly grasping a set of bagpipes and blowing into them, while somebody placed a tammy on his head. Try as he might, he could not produce a note, much to the crowd’s delight. “This is harder than fighting,” he said, before finally coaxing the pipes into a long and discordant wail.

“It had taken him,” observed the man from the Evening Times, “twice as long as it took to knock out Floyd Paterson in their recent world title fight.”

The exhibition bout saw Liston “amiably cuffing” sparring partner, Foneda Cox, though the evening’s real business was the Empire flyweight clash between champion Walter McGowan and Jamaican Kid Solomon, which McGowan won.

The Scots boxer died earlier this year, aged 73.