ADELAIDE Oval scoreboard bartender Les Gray will never forget the day Sir Donald Bradman tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to step outside for a chat.

“I used to go in every Wednesday afternoon to the committee room and flush the bar lines out for a couple of hours,” Mr Gray says.

“One day somebody walked in and I looked around the fridge door and there was the great man himself.

“He said hello and walked off and a couple of weeks later he said come out here and we talked on one of the old western stands.

“I called him Mr Bradman, and he said call me Don.

“He was a very humble man and it was such a great privilege, it was the highlight of my life.”

Mr Gray, 84, of Hillcrest, will pour his last beer at Adelaide Oval at this Sunday’s SANFL Grand Final between Woodville West-Torrens and West Adelaide.

He has decided to retire after 43 years working the stadium’s bars.

He says he could write a book on the people he has met.

Mr Gray’s first day at Adelaide Oval was in 1972 at the SANFL Grand Final between North Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

“I was working at the Victoria Park Racecourse bar and they seconded a few of us to go over to Adelaide Oval because they were short staffed,” he says.

“And I never left.”

Mr Gray worked in the old Creswell Bar, where the southern stand is today, until 1973 when he started at the scoreboard bar.

“I remember working in the bar in 1973 when Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon were kidnapped from the oval and police asked me if I had seen them.”

Mr Gray had a stint in the members bar from 1979 to 1984 before heading back below the famous scoreboard.

“I’ve spent half my life in there,” he laughs.

“Until Sunday when I will give it over to the first woman supervisor in the scoreboard bar in 104 years.”

Mr Gray says he will treasure the memories but admits he is looking forward to retirement.

“I’ve decided to spend a bit more time with my wife,” he says.

“We’ve been married 65 years and I have 13 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren which will keep me busy.”