PORT Macquarie’s king of the courts will rub shoulders with real royalty this weekend.
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London Paralympic gold medallist Ryley Batt will meet and share lunch with Prince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall.
He was invited to dine with the royals on Saturday at Parliament House by Australia’s Governor General Quentin Bryce.
The normally outspoken Batt was over-awed on Wednesday when he spoke to Port News about his impending brush with royalty.
“I’ve never even seen any of the royals up close,” he said.
“It’s a huge thing, I mean, not many people get to meet royalty let alone have lunch with them.”
Batt said he found it amusing he was asked to write a short biography about himself and his achievements ahead of his lunch date.
“I guess it’s so they have a bit of information about me so they can strike up a conversation,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re going to talk about and I don’t know what I’m going to say to them. I think I’ll just wing it and see how it goes.
“It would have been nice if they gave me a bit of a bio, too, so I knew what to talk about.”
Batt’s partner Crystal Laws was also invited to the luncheon and he said she was just as nervous.
“She’s jumping out of her skin,” he said. “I think she’s definitely more nervous and excited than I am.”